Kingdom Hearts: Grimm Link
by REternal
Summary: Set right after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind, this is an alternate timeline where Sora is sent to the world of Remnant (best be caught up with the events of ReMind due to spoilers being imminent). There is currently no foreseeable way in returning to his friends. With that in mind, Sora will face this new endeavor. Elements from the Fate series are included.
1. Chapter 1: Breath

"Set right after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind, this is an alternate timeline where Sora is sent to the world of Remnant (best be caught up with the events of ReMind due to spoilers being imminent). There is currently no foreseeable way in returning to his friends. With that in mind, Sora will face this new endeavor."

* * *

**Ch.1 - Breath**

Well… it was pretty much expected.

The last thing Sora saw before fading away from the Destiny Islands was Kairi's ever-serene face. From what he was aware of, everyone from that journey was present: the Twilight Town gang, the ex-Nobodies, the trio from the Land of Departure, the King, Donald, Goofy… Riku. After prevailing over the fight against the Thirteen Darknesses and seeing Master Xehanort make peace with his defeat, the victory still did not feel complete. Kairi's demise at the hands of Xehanort left a hole in his heart and it didn't sit well for him to accept the truth of her being gone without at least using the power of waking in an attempt to bring her back. His attempts to defy fate led him through the minds of his fellow Keyblade wielders and their situation when he, Donald, and Goofy battled Master Xehanort at Scala ad Caelum. In the end, he gathered all of the fragments of Kairi's heart needed to bring her back.

Yes, even if it cost him the privilege of ever seeing them again.

'_There's a high price to pay for wielding such power foolishly.'_

'_Your time… in this world is—!'_

Sora knew what he was getting into when he vowed to bring Kairi back. Young Xehanort's words are just a reminder of the ramifications of his choice and as such, the price he paid for his overuse of the power of waking has already been set in stone. What he was essentially doing was bending destiny, so such a power would come at a significant price. Nevertheless he has already felt full circle with what he has gotten out from his journeys and felt Kairi deserves better. So now there is no turning back. This was it for him.

With the weight of his body leaving the world behind, the memories of the past few years flew by before he finally let his mind rest as the realm of unconsciousness began to seep in and take over. It was not that long before he felt a sense of place. Slowly, he opened his vision to find himself standing in a bright void. There was nothing worth looking at as there was basically nothing to look at. Looking down at himself, he was still wearing the attire from his last adventure. After a bit of thought, Sora decided to walk in an unspecified direction.

"Is this actually the afterlife?"

He really had to wonder if this was the actual final destination for the deceased. When the whole Seekers of Light met their demise by the literal storm of Heartless, they haven't exactly completely died but were taken to The Final World. From what Chirithy has explained, it was a sort of purgatory for hearts with connections to the living world so strong that they cannot fully pass on. It was a rather interesting experience for Sora to piece himself and the others back together in that Final World. But in this case, his body seemed whole. Shouldn't he be left without a body? His train of thought was interrupted when he felt a presence straight ahead. Bright light gradually filled the location quickly as Sora covered his eyes.

"What is this?" Sora said aloud.

"**Wandering soul, your form was in pieces when I found you. The essence radiating from you was… interesting."**

Sora took a peek at the source. He couldn't make out a form, all he saw was overwhelming light. "Who are you?"

"**My identity is not a concern for this meeting. What I will tell you is that I am responsible for bringing you here. Your appearance was something unprecedented. The strength of your heart caught my utmost attention. I can already tell, by taking a look at that strength and the way you carry yourself, that you were a hero who has already experienced a life's worth of ordeals."**

"I remember fading from my world. Tell me, am I able to return to my world? To my friends?"

There was a moment of silence before Sora's question was answered. "**Unfortunately, I could not determine where you came from. You cannot return from whence you came. My apologies." **

That was something Sora expected, but he still felt downbeat upon hearing the answer. "Oh… well I paid the price for using that power too much. What matters is that everyone back home is doing fine. They can live their destinies to their heart's content. As for me, I have lived my chance at life to its fullest… and I'm fine with that."

"**But what if I told you another chance is right around the corner."**

"Huh?"

The light continued its sentence, "**I do not know of the land where you came from, but I know of a land that can use someone like yourself. A world with a history of strife and a struggle against mankind's darkness. This is something I am sure you have probably heard of before."**

It was.

"**What I am offering is another chance to use your powers for the benefit of the masses; the redemption of humanity. Remnant has its fair share of heroic minds like yours, but with heroes come their villains. With their continued conflict, they will remain divided yet hope still exists and I feel you are a person who can right this wrong. I still see much of life you have yet to discover. This world is one that can give you such experience, but under the condition that you accept this task. It is completely voluntary and you can continue the deep rest you deserve. So, what is your decision?"**

This was certainly a hard decision. Sora was not thinking of even a slight possibility of him having the opportunity to live a life again. After the Keyblade fell into his hands, he was suddenly given such great power and was given responsibility to the welfare of numerous worlds. Was he ready to potentially spend another lifetime fighting to keep the light of humanity lit? Albeit this offer only refers to one world, but with an extremely long-term dilemma. Did he have it in him to do this now?

"_May your heart be your guiding key." _Sora thought to himself as he put a hand to his chest while closing his eyes. He then extended his hand to call out something in the darkness, and then he felt weight in his hand. Opening his eyes, he laid his eyes on the one thing that led him through this path: the Kingdom Key, in all of its splendor.

Because of this Keyblade, he had to face all of his hardships and carry the duties of maintaining world order. But it was also because of the Keyblade that he was able to connect with so many individuals. All of those worlds he has visited; not a single one where he felt that he didn't connect with at least one heart. Call it natural charisma or even a special aura that draws people to him, but Sora just thinks that making bonds is the right thing to do. With that in mind, Sora had one other thing to ask, "Can you at least tell me anything of value about this world, like what the state of it is?"

"**It has been ages since I have been to Remnant. I, along with another, decided to depart the world and allowed humanity to mend the wounds they have inflicted upon themselves. Because of our departure, the people of Remnant might not be able to use magic like they once have, or now they might not even believe in the existence of magic. Other than that, my absence has made my knowledge about the current fate of Remnant unknown. If you prefer to be done with fighting, then rest is always an option—"**

"I'll do it. I can't stand by knowing that a world is at stake when there is something I can do about it. If anything, my friends would be disappointed if I didn't take action. So, count me in!" Sora said this with absolute confidence.

It was a response that the light was not all so surprised at. Sora's drive to help others was visibly apparent. He had a look that radiated conviction, a conviction of true loyalty to connections. "**If that is the case, then the redemption of Remnant is your utmost goal. Only by completing this task will we come back to witness what has become of the world. Now go."** Then the light finally faded. Sora soon felt himself falling in the void, but this time to a set location. As he began to lose consciousness, he had only one thing to think about.

"_Remnant, here I come."_

* * *

It's been about two days since Sora's arrival on Remnant. His arrival was quite a welcoming one… because he fell head first into the ocean in a form of a white streak (huh, felt something like this happened before). Rising up to the surface he took a look around: it looked early in the morning as the sun rose above the horizon as he could make out a landmass with a city. The only problem was that it was going to take a bit to swim to. Fortunately there was a nearby fishing boat that made its way to his location. Sora swam up to the boat to see a very surprised fisherman. The fisherman offered Sora a ride to the docks and Sora obliged. They didn't really say much to each other during the ride, but Sora heard the fisherman muttering something along the lines of, "Kids testing their Semblances these days." Being his first minutes on Remnant, Sora had no clue on what a "Semblance" was.

More unfamiliar terms such as "Dust", "Faunus", and "Aura" were brought about when he got off the boat and traversed the city of Vale, so when Sora came across a public library he went straight into looking for books that gave him a basic understanding of Remnant as a whole. Sora isn't much of a book person, but if he did have to spend another lifetime in this world, then he better at least have a common understanding of life here. He had decided to sleep within a tree in a park because a dude who just came from another dimension most likely doesn't carry Lien, so he couldn't book a hotel room or anything. The bench seems a bit more practical but at least sleeping in a tree yielded more privacy.

So the two days passed by unremarkably.

Right now, it was just a typical night in the city. Civilians were going back home, most businesses and restaurants were beginning to close down for the night, and those who enjoy the nightlife roamed around. Sora was just heading back from the library, having finished the reading for the day. It was a miracle that Sora understood the writing and language of Remnant, something that the light most likely gave him the ability to have. His feelings toward the things he has read were mixed. The technology of this era was sure fascinating but when it came to social issues, it troubled Sora. The general discrimination towards the Faunus was unjustified. Sure the White Fang are a big problem to deal with, but they are just the radical minority. Faunus usually just have a single physical trait distinguishing them from humans, what's the big deal? He went on adventures with an anthropomorphic dog and duck and referred to a mouse as "Your Majesty."

That aside, Sora realized something else: he hasn't eaten ever since he arrived. Now that's a big problem. He needs to find a way to make Lien fast. Like Twilight Town, he did find boards listing part-time jobs to do. Reading up on Remnant, however, occupied a lot of time along with him freerunning around the city to get a general layout.

"Well I guess I should start working tomorrow then," Sora said while crossing his arms behind his head. He turned the corner onto the street that led to the park, which was a few more blocks ahead. There he noticed the shop, From Dust Till Dawn. Dust was basically an inferior substitute for magic and since this was a primary resource for hunters to use, Sora might have to call his magic usage "Dust" and maybe even limit the potency of his magic to blend in. This world now will probably not take the sudden existence of magic well, seeing that the books indicated no current usage of magic. Regardless, Sora took a fascination in the vastly versatile applications of Dust and thought about those as he window-shopped. What he soon noticed were a group of thugs grabbing the Dust. Quick to action, Sora began heading towards the door, "Oh no, this is bad news!"

He would have made it to the door had it not been for two of the thugs to suddenly go flying out the window. Sora stepped back to avoid collision. Another individual jumped out of the window, most definitely the person who kicked the thugs out. Taking a look at the individual, Sora noticed she was a girl with a pale complexion around his age. Her shoulder-length hair was a black color that gradated to ruby at the tips. Opening her eyes, steely silver irises gazed at the robbers. She wore dark themed apparel that contrasted her complexion, sporting a red cape that was pinned on by two cross shaped pins. As she rose, a GARGANTUAN red and black metal scythe retracted from its compact form. The girl gave it some twirls before striking the blade onto the ground, embedding it into the concrete.

"_That… is a COOL weapon," _Sora thought.

The group of thugs ran up to her, but she evaded the first guy by performing some acrobatics on her embedded scythe. With a full twist, she propelled herself with a missle kick to the face while grabbing her scythe. As she landed, she loaded a sniper round into the chamber as she proceeded to fire it. This caused her to spin rapidly due to recoil and knock back another thug. Using the momentum of the spin, the girl used the blunt end of the scythe to do an overhead swing straight down onto the third thug, slamming him down to the ground. The last thug started shooting from his rifle. However, he was not able to connect as the girl began zooming around and started closing in on him. She slides on the floor, sending the thug into the air and in quick succession embeds the scythe tip into the ground, pivots to the airborne thug, and kicks him straight to the ground.

Sora was simply amazed by the girl's skill. He couldn't contain the excitement, "Hey, those were some sweet skills! Where did you learn all of that from?"

"Oh! Uhhh… thanks." The girl didn't see Sora until he called her out. "I'm still a student at Signal Academy." She was about to continue until the sound of clapping appeared. They looked at the source to be an orange haired man with bangs covering one eye wore a bowler hat while smoking a cigar. He wore a gray scarf, white coat, and black pants and shoes. In his hand was a black cane.

"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were," the man said as he crushed his cigar. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around… I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

Roman raised his cane, revealing a scope. This sent red flags in Sora's mind and the girl did not fully have her guard up. Sora decided it was time to leap into action. As soon as the criminal fired a red Dust round, Sora closed the gap between him and the girl as he prepared to shield her. She thought he was insane to take a round without assistance, initially thinking he was just a civilian. Those thoughts changed when Sora called upon the Kingdom Key as it appeared in his hands. Sora used the Keyblade to bat the round into the sky, exploding in the air. The girl stared in awe as he basically deflected a round without it exploding on contact.

"Now that's what I call a homerun," Sora proclaimed.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting that… " the criminal looked a bit baffled, "... but it would be best if I were to be on my way. Ciao." The criminal then shot another dust round at the duo. The girl, who was ready this time, and Sora both side-stepped away from the explosion. When the dust settled, Sora found the criminal making an attempt to run away. He decided to follow in pursuit. Before he got anywhere, he noticed the girl ran in front of him and looked like she wanted to say something.

"You managed to swing that kind of dust round away without it blowing up in your face! Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Uhhh… self taught?"

The girl gave him a slight look of disbelief but continued on with the chat, "My name is Ruby Rose. And you are…?"

"I'm Sora. We can get to know more about each other after catching this crook!" Ruby nodded. The two found the criminal scaling up a ladder on a nearby building. Behind them, the shopkeeper went to observe what happened outside. Sora gave a reassuring look to the old man, "Stay inside. We'll take care of this!" After a sound of confirmation from the shopkeeper, Sora and Ruby ran towards the building. As they were approaching the building, a group of similar thugs appeared from the adjacent street. Ruby prepped her scythe, but Sora ran past her.

"I got this!"

The first thug made an attempt for a horizontal cleave with a machete, which resulted in Sora leaping over the thug and maneuvering his body to land a strike across the back of his head, knocking the thug out. Sora used the momentum from the strike to kick himself off from the first thug and launch himself at a thug to his side. That very unprepared guard had his jaw acquainted with Kingdom Key as Sora followed through with an upward slash, sending him airbourne. A third thug attempted to flank him from behind and perform a back attack, yet Sora was aware of that and pivoted around to leg sweep the thug. Sora was not done and instead gripped the guard's wrist and chucked him at the airborne thug. As those two crashed onto the ground, another thug hopped over them to exchange in a swordfight with Sora. It was not going well for him, as his opponent has already faced multitudes of swordsmen many leagues above his skill level. Needless to say that Sora easily deflected a few strikes and proceeded to butt the end of Kingdom Key onto the thug's torso. This knocked the wind out of the thug as he joined the pile.

Ruby watched the exchange, very impressed with Sora's skill. No words were needed as both teens looked at one another to nod in confirmation and headed towards the building. Sora got to the building first and ran up the wall. This left Ruby gawking as she decided to use Crescent Rose's recoil to bounce up to the roof in one bound. They stopped to see the man near the edge.

"Hey!" Ruby called out.

"Persistent…the two of you," he muttered. It was a second later when the sound of engines revved to life. A Bullhead suddenly appeared from behind the building, blowing wind onto Ruby and Sora. He climbed on board the Bullhead. "End of the line, kids!" From his pockets, a red Dust crystal was tossed at their feet. They both saw Roman shoot a round at them, realizing what he had done. They were ready to brace the explosion, but someone else managed to negate the explosion. As the dust settled, they found a blond woman with emerald green eyes behind her ovular glasses. She wore a white long-sleeved top with a black pencil skirt and leggings. Trailing behind her was a black cape with a purple inside. She was holding… a riding crop?

"Are you a Huntress?" Sora asked.

The huntress did not reply as she immediately got to work. She shot off a volley of aura projectiles at the Bullhead in the attempts to ground it. Roman, trying to gain footing in the turbulence, ran up to the cockpit of the vehicle. "We've got a Huntress!" Roman exclaimed to the woman at the helm, swapping with Roman afterwards. The huntress then conjured dark clouds above the Bullhead before it started to hail ice shards, damaging the Bullhead's exterior. A woman shrouded in shadows appears in front of the door.

Her face is covered so no one outside could really identify her, only her bright amber eyes shone through. She readied a fireball and shot it out. The huntress used an aura slash to bisect the fireball. As soon as the fallen embers had landed on the ground, the mysterious woman conjured the embers to suddenly heat up. The huntress evaded the large explosion that was right under her. She then took control of the surrounding debris to make a spear and shot it towards the aircraft. Blasts of fire were shot to break down the spear, but it reformed together as it continued its path and managed to graze the roof of the Bullhead. The spear then separated into three, surrounding the Bullhead. Deciding that she had enough, the woman sent out a burst of flames, destroying the projectiles in the process. With no hesitation, she summoned even more fire pillars in order to distract the fighters on the roof. Ruby made a few desperate shots, but they were ultimately deflected as the Bullhead managed to fly away.

Sora processed what just happened. He turned to the Huntress, "Woah, that was amazing. I didn't know Huntresses were so pow—"

"Eeeeeep! Are you a professional Huntress? Can I have your autograph?" Ruby exclaimed.

Judging from the look she gave the two teens, Sora could only think of one thing: "_That's the type of look my mom gave me when I misbehaved."_

* * *

"Just great," muttered Sora with an exasperated sigh.

He and Ruby were taken into custody following the events that transpired tonight as they were escorted to the local police station. Both of them were taken to separate interrogation rooms. After what seemed like a half of an hour passed by of nothing, the door opened and the blond huntress walked into the room. Sora was sort of nervous from the slight glances she was giving him while seemingly observing stuff from her electronic device. It's kind of like a Gummiphone except bigger. Think that's what people here call a "Scroll."

"Young man, I hope you understand that what you decided to partake in will not be left unnoticed," the huntress finally spoke. "Your bravery might have ended up backfiring on you. If I was your parent, I would give you a hug of relief… and a slap on the wrist…," she said as she slapped the table with her riding crop, making Sora flinch. Seeing that she has made her point, she continued on, "...but that's not my decision to make."

The door opened to reveal a silver haired man with circular spectacles and hazel eyes. His apparel consisted of a black coat and pants with a green undershirt. He was holding a coffee mug with his left hand and a metal cane with his right hand, yet the lack of a limp made Sora think that the cane wasn't necessarily used for support. His eyes scanned Sora, like he was trying to discern an anomaly before him. "Curious…," the man finally muttered.

"Uhhh, what is?"

"We have attempted to trace your history and we have come up with nothing. Every sort of record we can feasibly try to locate. Nothing comes up," the man continues. He sat down across from Sora as the Huntress gave him the Scroll. He tapped on a tab to display a series of photos. "We only have evidence of your existence starting around the time a supposed 'meteorite' fell into the bay. We fortunately were given nearby security camera footage and had enough info to tell that you were that meteorite, especially after talks by the fishermen of the area spread. For the next couple of days we have also kept tabs on the books you were reading in the library. _Basic Remnant History for Dummies_ and _Grimm 101_? Not to mention _Dusty Dan's Dust Detour_, a Scholastic–"

"We do not need to get into that," Sora quickly interjected, sweating a bit.

The man resumed, "These are frankly all beginner leveled books. Yet with an amazing level of control, you were able to redirect an explosive Dust Round without it blowing up on your face. And here's another clip of you running up a building, seemingly unaided or probably with the help of a Semblance. The way you carried yourself a few hours ago, even though you didn't do much then, you have experience in combat. You are truly a contradictory figure, and I would like a name for this figure."

Guess Sora has never actually introduced himself to anyone other than Ruby. "My name is Sora, sir."

"Sora… do you have a last name?"

"Uh, no?"

"Hmm… alright then. Well do you mind elaborating on these series of events for us? Who you are and what is your past?"

Well Sora couldn't straight up say that he was from another world, possibly another dimension altogether. It was pretty routine whenever he traveled to other worlds to not explicitly say that he was from another world, part of maintaining the 'world order'. He wasn't going to pull out the amnesia card because this man seems pretty smart and would most likely not believe that. Sora was going to have to think of a quick cover story.

That's when Sora's mind wandered to thinking about the Destiny Islands. The main reason why he, along with Riku and Kairi, wanted to sail out on a raft because he quite frankly didn't know anything about the outside. No person from the outside came to their islands in a conventional way, like by boat. They were pretty much isolated, which also reminded Sora of him overhearing a conversation between Hunters about uncharted territory blocked by vast numbers of Grimm.

"_Huh, maybe I can make a case for this."_

"You see, I come from an island with miles of ocean on all sides. Never knew what was out there, and we never saw ships from the outside. There was one point where I thought the island was all this world had and that was mainly…"

"Because Grimm surrounded your island? And I assume the Grimm eventually overran your island?" the man guessed.

Sora tried his best to feign sorrow, "Yes, the Grimm made things difficult for us to learn much about the outside world. The books I read in the library have terms I wasn't familiar with or told of, yet things I know."

"So what you are saying is that you weren't taught terms such as Dust and Semblances because our terminology has not reached your isolated island even though we speak the same dialect?"

"Uhhh, yes."

The silver haired man gave Sora an inquisitive gaze, possibly wondering if everything adds up. Sora was getting a bit unnerved under his peering stare. Lying wasn't his strong suit.

"Is everything good, sir?"

"Ah don't mind me, it's not unheard of the fact that there are settlements within the vast territories of Grimm, there are a few incoming students if I recall coming from such places."

"Students? Are you a teacher?"

"Well it seems like you really don't know me," the man remarked. "I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy."

The surprised look on Sora's face did not betray anything. Ozpin took a guess that Sora has not begun to read up upon important figures nor general global settings and events. As much as he would like digging up Sora's history, that wasn't the entire reason for this meeting.

"Anyways, the main purpose of my visit is to extend the same proposition I made with Miss Rose. By the way, how old are you, Sora?"

"Sixteen."

"A year younger than the typical first year student, but nonetheless I see amazing potential in your abilities. What I see in future Hunters is not the past they came from, but what they can provide for the future. Seeing as you also have more knowledge to learn about this world and its inhabitants, I would like to offer you admission into Beacon Academy for the upcoming school year. What do you think?"

_School?_ Oh boy. Who would think that a guy who already faced off against hordes of monsters, powerful figures, and even gods has to still attend a combat school. Regardless, Sora does agree that he needs to know more about this world. He can't aid in the salvation of the world if he barely knows anything about it. On the bright side, Beacon can provide another thing to Sora: potential friends.

And if there's one thing Sora excels at, it's making friends. He can already consider himself friends with Ruby now. Yay.

"Huh, it's not like I have a lot going for me with my current path. The Grimm might've taken my home, but they haven't taken what my heart feels is right," Sora put a hand to his heart. "I want to help as much as I can… so count me in."

A small smile came from Ozpin. "Then it is settled." Ozpin got up from his chair before turning to the Huntress. She gave Ozpin a sort of card as Ozpin placed the card right in front of Sora.

"In case you are wondering, this is a Lien card. This holds enough Lien to eat and sleep at a comfortable hotel for a week, which is also when the academic year begins. Seeing as you've been living homeless for the last few days, might as well spend the next week before school cleaning up," Ozpin said as he and the Huntress got to the door. Before they left, Ozpin said one last thing to Sora, "...consider this a gratuity for standing up to a notorious criminal." Sora watched as the door closed then looked down at the Lien card.

"Well this is certainly better than carrying a horde of Munny." Sora never thought to consider how he was able to contain all that crystal-like currency through all of his adventures. Convenient magical pocket space?

"_Maybe that's why my shoes are always pretty big—"_

He was interrupted from his thoughts when an officer entered the room. "You are free to leave the police station. I hope you have a good evening." Sora was eventually led out of the station, where he stopped after a few steps to look at the shattered moon. It reminded him of the time Ansem the Wise's machine made a giant hole on Xemnas' artificial Kingdom Hearts. He was again taken out of his thoughts when he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"Hey Sora!" He turned to see Ruby approaching him with an adult blond man following behind her.

"Oh Ruby! See you are still hanging around."

"Yeah, Ozpin finished his talk with me 20 minutes ago, but after my dad over there picked me up he started reprimanding me about my actions. But seriously, I got recognized by the Headmaster of Beacon! Eeeep! My dream of becoming a Huntress is arriving two years earlier!"

"Two years? So you're only a year younger than me? I got accepted into Beacon as well."

"Whaaaat?! That's great!"

The blond man, presumably Ruby's father, finally spoke, "Well that makes you two the youngest first-years if memory serves me right. Hello Sora, I'm Taiyang Xiao Long, Ruby's father. I don't mind being called Tai." Tai extended his hand in front of Sora as he took a look at Tai's appearance. Blue eyes, like his own, his clothing choices consisted of mainly different shades of brown and a red bandana wrapped around one arm. His other arm was more decorated with a shoulder pauldron, a tattoo, and a fingerless glove. Combined with his muscular build, it gave Sora an impression of a close-ranged brawler.

"_Wow they look nothing alike."_

Sora smiled as he returned the handshake, "Nice to meet you Tai! You must be real proud of Ruby for her talent now that she can attend Beacon early."

"Heh, well being proud is an understatement. This lil' rosebud still has a lot more to grow, but you can thank her uncle for teaching her scythe combat."

"Oh, you are flattering me, hehe…" Ruby interjected as she continued, "... you should've seen me a few years back, Sora. I was complete garbage before Uncle Qrow took me under his wing. From there, he taught me all of his tips and tricks, and now I'm kicking some criminal behind!" Ruby started doing some mock martial arts swipes and kicks with some exaggerated yells, garnering a slight laugh from Sora and a smirk from Tai. The older man turned to Sora and asked, "So what academy did you attend? I don't remember seeing you from Signal."

"Actually, I didn't go to any academy. The island I grew up on is pretty isolated from any of the continents. There were Hunters that taught us bits of combat, but I was mainly self-taught." This didn't really apply to magic because he has had Yen Sid, Merlin, and Donald help him develop his magic. However, seeing how he would have to cut his magic potency to blend in with the crowd, everything else about him physical combat-wise was pretty true.

Tai showed a face of surprise. It must've required a ton of effort and talent to do the things Ruby told him about and being accepted into Beacon early. It's not impossible, but he's heard of very rare cases of mostly self-taught individuals becoming highly efficient and powerful Huntsmen, a couple cases being Qrow and his… sister.

"Well, I'm glad that Ruby will not only have her older sister to accompany her, but you as a fellow early accepted student," Tai responded as he had more to say, "I also heard from Ozpin, when he left the building, that you have been sleeping in a tree for a few days. You can come stay with us for the remaining week if you'd like. Our house is situated in the woods, but I would prefer you to sleep on a bed rather than in trees," Tai finished with a chuckle.

Sora pondered on that for a second, but he eventually pulled out the Lien card Ozpin gave him. "Ozpin gave me this, telling me that it had enough Lien to live off a week and in time for Beacon. Thanks for the offer, but I still have more of Vale to discover. I'll use this to stay at a hotel."

"Are you sure about that, Sora?"

He nodded at the older man. Tai glanced at Ruby. She had a face mixed with joy and nervousness; there was joy because Tai finds Sora to be a good person and nervousness because he offered Sora to stay at their place. The girl showed confidence in combat, but she was pretty socially awkward. It didn't help that a _boy_ was invited to stay with them until Beacon's academic year started.

"_Oh man, what if Sora actually decided to take the offer? I haven't really talked to too many boys, and now Dad wanted one to stay with us for a week? How do you live around a boy?!" _Ruby internally thought.

He only had an amused look on his face, knowing what Ruby was thinking of, as he looked back at Sora. "Well if you are fine with that, then that's fine by me," Tai relented as he turned to Ruby, "I think it's about time for us to head back home. Have to start cooking real soon. It was good talking to you, Sora. Hope you and Ruby have a great time at Beacon." As Tai waved goodbye and walked away, Ruby turned to Sora.

"Looking forward to seeing you at Beacon, Sora. Let's show them our awesome skills!" Ruby said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, we'll show em! Have a good night, you two!" Sora said as he watched them walk away.

Seeing their forms disappear, Sora looked back to the moon. He let his mind wander for a bit. A night like this… reminded him of his first time in Traverse Town. Finding himself in an alleyway after being swept from the Destiny Islands, where it fell into the Realm of Darkness. Realizing that he was lost in a brand new world, encountering some foes, and eventually meeting new friends. His friendship with Donald and Goofy is definitely one he will cherish until his last breath. And so they journeyed to many worlds, met so many faces, and discovered many experiences. Once an islander closed off in a prison surrounded by water and now a savior of worlds. Sora will now add this world into the list. Who knows how long it will take, but right now he's been given the sole purpose to bring this world out of chaos and he will succeed.

A fist raised to the shattered moon, Sora made a proclamation: "I swear to all of the companions and allies I have made through these past years, I will do my best to protect this world. Although apart, our hearts will always be linked. Our bonds bring so many good memories, give me strength, and most importantly drive me forward. Now, I will do this in honor of your names."

* * *

**A week later…**

The following week flew by pretty quickly as Sora finally got to live in at least much better living conditions. True to his word, Ozpin's Lien card has comfortably lasted Sora the entire week. He was now able to sleep at a decent hotel with a nice mattress and eat some food (which he realized he didn't get to do when he got to Remnant). Admittedly he took a trip to a high-end restaurant somewhere downtown the day prior just to test how much Lien the card really has, leaving the card balance with enough to check out of the hotel this morning. The food there was superb, but he was surprised to say that the food Little Chef cooked up was still slightly better. What was even more amusing was the fact that he saw a chef that was a mouse Faunus. Coincidences do work weird like that sometimes.

Currently, Sora was aboard one of the airships taking students to Beacon. He marveled at the consistency of advanced technology this world offered, even more than what he saw in San Fransokyo. Surely Hiro would have a field day everyday on Remnant. Sora took a look around the ship to see some students looking at their Scrolls, in which Sora took out his own. He bought this a few days with the Lien card and was still learning the essential functions, but it was basically like learning how to use the Gummiphone again (which much to his dismay wasn't on his person when he got to this world).

A news anthem caught his attention to the holographic projection. It was a news report pertaining to the criminal he and Ruby encountered that night. Roman Torchwick, a local crime lord of Vale's underground. What made him interesting was that he wasn't a typical robber who took money, but rather just Dust. Sora did a bit of searching up his past heists online to see that the criminal has not stolen a single Lien, but rather loads of Dust. Is he trying to supply his own personal army or something? Torchwick's current whereabouts are unknown, but if Sora didn't feel the need to hide his true capabilities then he would've found a way to keep Torchwick from escaping. The news report was cut short and the Huntress from that night came on to welcome the students to Beacon. Sora was finally able to pin a name onto her, Glynda Goodwitch. So she's the Deputy Headmistress. With that no-nonsense behavior of her's it seems like incurring her wrath won't be recommended.

"Hey, you!"

Sora turned around to see who called him. It was a young man with black and white hair and blue eyes. His attire consists mainly of a black and white tunic with blue accents, black pants, thigh-high armored boots, and a short white cape with a black edge. Aside from his boots, his left arm has a gauntlet, and he wears a set of faulds at his waist. A sword scabbard hangs at his left side, and red marks coat his right gloved arm.

"Huh, me?" Sora asked.

"Yeah you! You are the dude from the Dust store video!" The person pulled out his Scroll and showed the screen to Sora, which displayed a bystander clip of Sora and Ruby dispatching the thugs. Apparently there were people around to record them.

"Heh yeah, that's me," Sora bashfully responded.

"I think what you and that other person did was so awesome! Man I wish I got to see that in person. I would've stepped in to help too, but it's pretty cool that I've finally gotten to meet you and see that you are now a fellow Beacon student. How about that girl?"

"Oh Ruby? She also got into Beacon so I should be seeing her around very soon. What's great is that she's only 15 and I'm just a year older."

The student widened his eyes and had his mouth agape. "Wow, props to you guys. Now this makes you guys appear even more awesome! It's a pleasure meeting you. What's your name?"

"The name's Sora, and you?"

"Charlemagne, Charlemagne Magnus." He extended his hand for a handshake, which Sora returned. "You can me Charlie, just to keep it more simple."

Sora gave Charlemagne a smile. He can already see Charlemagne as a great friend to have, hopefully getting to see him in action too. The nearby speaker then chimed on, "Attention to all students, we are approaching the main campus. Welcome to Beacon Academy." The two boys turned their attention to the window to observe the view. Both were lost for words.

"This is…"

"... so cool."

Beacon seemed less like a campus and more like an elaborate castle ground. It wasn't as imposing as the castle from The World That Never Was, but the grand size and beauty of Beacon cannot be ignored. As the transports finally touched down on the docks, students began walking out of them to flood the campus. This was when everyone truly saw the scale of the campus.

"Heh, I've seen some sights that are truly marvelous, especially since seeing them for the first time leaves such an impression. This is one of 'em," Charlemagne said as the two began moving through the crowds.

"I can't agree less. Hey by the way, where are we supposed to go from here?" Sora responded.

Charlemagne put his hand on his chin, "Huh, I think from what I heard we were supposed to go to the auditorium to listen to a speech by the Headmaster. We should have enough time to find that auditorium, especially if we follow the crowd—" He was just done with his sentence when an explosion was heard in the distance. "What was that?"

"It sounded like an explosion and I can see the smoke too. I'm gonna quickly see if anyone's ok!" Sora was ready to run towards the direction of the explosion.

"I might as well go with you too!", responded Charlemagne as they rushed to the scene. They arrived to see a girl in white rush off with servants helping her push her luggages along with another girl primarily wearing black walking in another direction. In the epicenter with char marks stood a blond dude and a familiar face.

Sora gave a sigh of relief. It was nice to see a friendly face so soon after touching down at Beacon. "Hey Charlie, it seems like you get to meet her sooner than expected. Let's make ourselves known to them. Heyyy, Ruby!"

Ruby and the blond dude noticed the two walking towards them. "Oh Sora! I didn't expect to see you this soon! And who's your new friend?"

"Charlemagne, but you can call me Charlie. I saw videos of you and Sora duking it out with Roman Torchwick and his goons. Your skills are pretty sick!", Charlemagne exclaimed as he walked forward to shake Ruby's hand

"Ahh…", Ruby sheepishly laughed. "I guess everyone has seen the videos at this point. So much for having normal knees."

The three boys were puzzled for a second before the blond went to go introduce himself. "The name is Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it."

"Really?", Sora said with a hint of sarcasm. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Charlemagne's eyes very slightly scrunched up for a split second.

"Well, my mom said so... I hope they do."

"I sure hope that's the case then," Charlemagne chuckled before pondering, "...by the way. Do any of you guys know where the auditorium is? We lost the crowd."

Ruby felt a bit awkward, "Nope. Uhh well I got this." She took out Crescent Rose and unveiled it while getting a tiny bit of property damage. "This is my baby, Crescent Rose!"

Charlemagne whistled, "Now that I get to see it in person, that is one scythe."

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!"

"A wha-?" Jaune was confused about what Ruby said.

"It's also a gun." Sora replied, which got a confirmation from Jaune. Jaune then took out his own weapons and extended his shield. "I got this sword and shield."

"What do they do?" Sora asked.

"The shield gets smaller so when I'm tired of carrying it, I can just put it away."

It was Ruby's turn to ask. "Doesn't it just weigh the same then?"

"Yeah… What about you two?"

Sora decided to show them even though Ruby has already seen the Keyblade. After learning more about Dust, Semblances, and Aura, Sora had to figure out how to pass off his abilities as the product of those factors. He can't unveil everything or else that would compromise a lot. It would be a bit suspicious to others if he was able to outright summon the Keyblade without holding some sort of item or contraption beforehand. So he devised some cover information during the past week. Sora reached into one of his pockets and took out the keychain for Kingdom Key. He then willed it to summon as the weapon finally appeared in a glimmer of light.

"I've got an array of different keychains so depending on how I wanna approach something, I can swap keychains so my Keyblade will change according to what keychain I use. Each keychain is imbued with light Dust that blueprint the look of the Keyblade and some also have another type of Dust mixed in. My Semblance works very well with light Dust, so that's how I'm able to do that."

"Your Semblance?" Charlemagne said curiously.

With a smirk, Sora ran and launched himself at a pole. Blue light enveloped him as he swung around the pole once making contact. He zipped to another pole before leaping on a railing and starting grinding along it. Sora then zoomed towards the group before stopping right in front of Charlemagne. "This is my Semblance, Flow. My Aura is converted into flowing energy which enhances not only my combat and weapons with light Aura, but also allows me to do all of that."

"Epic…" Charlemagne was lost for words.

Ruby had stars in her eyes. "So is that how you were able to run along that wall?"

"Pretty much. I can concentrate my Semblance onto parts of the body and with running up the wall, I only apply it to the bottom of my feet."

"Amazing. Sooo, what about you Charlie?"

"Heh, I'll keep my weapon and Semblance a secret for now. I think it will leave a much better impression if you saw me in combat with them. Besides, we should really find the auditorium by now."

Ruby slumped a bit, "Awww..."

"I did see the crowds surrounding a building while I was in the air, so that should be the auditorium." Sora answered.

"Then let's head in the direction you saw the crowds." Jaune said.

All ready to go, Sora led the group to where the crowds were.

* * *

"Hey Ruby, I saved you a spot!"

Ruby noticed her blond sister waving at her. "Oh! Hey I gotta go. See you guys after the ceremony!" She ran towards her sister.

Jaune called for Ruby but she didn't hear. "Wait! Great, where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?"

"And you're trying to fulfill the role of lady's man already?" Sora teased Jaune.

"Hey shush you."

Sora and Charlemagne laughed at Jaune as the boys walked off, not noticing a red-head girl looking at Jaune.

"I'm not going to lie, a lot of these girls are beautiful. Don't worry Jaune, one will hopefully come around." Charlemagne reassured him as he took a gander around.

"At least someone is encouraging…" Jaune muttered.

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and _scraggly_ over there!"

The boys noticed Ruby having a conversation with a girl wearing mainly white, who they remember seeing her walk away from Ruby after she exploded. Sora watched the exchange, "Hey, isn't that the girl from before?"

"Hey, is that who I think it is…" Charlemagne wondered before noticing Ozpin take stage. "Hey, the Headmaster is now here."

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin then stepped off the stage as Glynda walked in, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Most of the students were confused as they went towards the ballroom.

"Well that was one way to leave an impression on the crowd." Charlemagne was certainly curious on why Ozpin had such a delivery.

"Yeah, he seemed very off. Like something was bothering him. By the way, where did Jaune go? He was here a second ago." Sora asked. The two scanned the room until they saw Jaune trying to conversate with the white-haired girl.

"Well I guess he can leave him be for now. Let's follow the crowd this time, Jaune should be able to find us later."

* * *

Night has fallen and all first-year students were notified that they were sleeping in the ballroom for their first night. Tomorrow was when teams will be sorted and dedicated team dorms will be decided, but for now it was one big sleepover. Each student was given a sleeping bag provided by the staff and their luggages was stored together elsewhere until teams were determined. So now students are settling in for the night, some conversing, some getting ready to turn in for the night, or some already asleep for the big day tomorrow.

Sora was lying on his sleeping bag looking at the ceiling with arms behind his head. His pajamas were a simple black and white t-shirt with black shorts. He had earphones hooked up to his Scroll, listening to some music from a music playing app. The artist that he was currently listening to was a woman named Utada Hikaru. She has quite the voice and singing talent, so she quickly became one of the best singers that Sora had the pleasure of listening to. A few minutes had passed and Charlemagne entered his view, his choice of sleep wear being a white long-sleeved shirt and blue pants with two black stripes per leg sleeve.

"Ready for the big day tomorrow, Sora?"

As Charlemagne sat down, Sora sat up from his position. "More than ever. I can't wait to see what you can do tomorrow. Oh, I see Jaune… uhh what is he wearing…"

What they saw made both boys sweat drop. Surely it was a sight for the females in the room to see the guys who slept shirtless, but it was also a sight to see what Jaune was wearing albeit in a different light. The man was wearing a blue onesie with a bunny theme, a white bunny head printed on the chest area and a bunny head on each foot. Sora did wear a red onesie with his primary outfit in his first journey, but at least he had wore other things to complement it. Jaune finally took notice of the boys and walked towards them.

"Oh hey, there you guys are!" Jaune placed his sleeping bag down and started to set it up next to Sora's and Charlemagne's. "Can't believe we are sleeping here of all places, especially since boys and girls are together."

This got a chuckle from the other two. "Seems like you're gonna feel awkward from all of this." Sora playfully chided.

"Nah. I have seven sisters, so I am used to sleeping around the company of beautiful girls."

"Seven sisters? Hopefully they at least taught you well in striking conversations with other girls, like with the girl you tried talking to after Ozpin's speech."

"Hey, it was Weiss who gave me that compliment. I'm getting somewhere, Sora."

"Weiss Schnee, huh…"

Sora and Jaune turned their heads towards Charlemagne, who had his attention towards the girl who was combing her now free flowing hair. It was Sora who first voiced his curiosity. "It seems like you know her personally."

"Well anyone who has heard of the Schnee name knows that Jacques Schnee, owner of the Schnee Dust Company, has three children: Whitley, Winter, and Weiss. I don't blame you for not knowing since you came from an isolated island. I did come here from Atlas and not only have I encountered Weiss a few times, but my father has also cozied up with most of the council members of Atlas. Our family has very recently started to become more known throughout Mantle, so we've been invited to a couple Schnee parties. Who would've thought that Weiss would choose to enroll in Beacon over Atlas Academy? She could be like her older sister, Winter, and climb the ranks of the military."

"Maybe she found a good reason to come here over that school in Atlas." Jaune guessed.

"There's probably a lot more to this decision. Jacques isn't really a big fan of Huntsmen in general and Winter becoming an Atlesian specialist is something that went against his wishes." Charlemagne said as the three fell into silent contemplation about this knowledge but soon noticed the blond girl from the auditorium coming towards their location, dragging Ruby along with her.

"Heyyyy~! Are you the three boys who looked after Rubyr today? I must say Rubes, you sure have good taste…" She said that as she checked them out before pausing briefly at Jaune, specifically with what he's wearing.

"_I don't like how she worded that" _All three boys thought unanimously.

"That aside, my name is Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister. We have different moms but that's ok because Rubes is the best sister one can have!" Yang gave Ruby a bear hug, much to the younger girl's protests. "I just wanted to meet you guys for myself and hopefully teach Ruby to reach out more."

"Yang, I'm pretty sure you, Sora, Charlie, and Jaune are a lot more than enough friends for me right now." Ruby retorted.

"Hey first of all, I'm not a friend, I'm your sister. And second, it's only been one day. Trust me; you've got friends all around you! You just haven't met them yet!"

"I agree with Yang," Sora spoke up, "there's no such thing as too many friends. Sure only a few will stick with you for a long time, but having many friends to count on is what takes you far. There's this one motto that I live by: 'I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power, and I'm theirs.' You can become a part of anyone's heart and as you connect with more people, all those hearts will become one and no darkness will stand in your way."

"W-wow Sora, you just sounded really cool there!" Charlemagne responded to Sora's mini speech while everyone else was astounded by Sora's sudden bout of wisdom.

Sora rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, I guess experience helped with that, but it's true. Hey, I see that girl reading that book by the candle over there; she was with you earlier right Ruby? Why don't you introduce yourself again? I'll help you."

"I don't think that would be necessary, she left before I can say anything—"

"C'mon Rubes! Now is your chance!" Yang exclaimed as she and Sora gradually pushed Ruby towards the girl. "How about you two boys?"

"I think we'll turn in for the night, we gotta wake up early tomorrow." Jaune responded with Charlemagne nodding in response. They exchanged good nights as the trio resumed to go where the girl is. As they arrive, the girl looks over her book to see Ruby failing to get out of Sora and Yang's grip as they finally noticed they got the girl's attention.

"You're the girl that exploded right?"

"Yea the name is Ruby, you can call me Crater… well actually just call me Ruby." This got a deadpan look from the girl. "This is my sister, Yang and a friend, Sora. What's your name?"

"Blake."

There was a brief moment of silence before Sora whispered to Ruby, "Hey Ruby, you should still continue the conversation."

"I dunno what to do, help me!" Ruby whispered back towards him and Yang. The blond decided to speak up. "I like your little bow, it goes great with your pajamas!"

"Thanks…" Blake started to feel a tiny bit agitated.

Yang tried again, "And it's a nice night, don't you think?"

"Almost as lovely as this book that I will continue to read… as soon as you leave." Blake responded.

Yang turned to Ruby and Sora, "Yeah, this girl is a lost cause." This got a slight frown from Sora, but he had an idea. "Maybe talk to her about her book?"

"What's the book about? Does it have a name?" Ruby decided to take Sora's suggestion.

"Huh? Oh, i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."

"_That story is something oddly relevant to me."_ Sora thought as he recalled moments like that before coming to Remnant. Riku's dealings with Ansem, Sora's own encounter with Roxas, Master Xehanort with Terra. He is no stranger with this kind of experience, being the one who held the hearts of Kairi, Roxas, Xion, and Ventus. He did decide to speak up, "That's a real interesting story there."

"I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!" Ruby declared with conviction. "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

"That's... very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

"Well, that's why we're here! To make it better. Fairy tales are usually based on reality, so a fairy tale based on a peaceful Remnant is something I want to see." Sora interjected, this got some respect from Blake.

"I'm so proud of you two!" Yang gave the two a tight hug, Sora finally knowing what it feels like to get a hug from Yang. The two tried struggling, causing a commotion to start.

"Well Ruby, Yang, Sora, it was a pleasure meeting—"

"What in the world are you all doing! Some of us are trying to sleep!" Weiss marched into their area to yell at them.

"Your yelling isn't really helping the matter too, Weiss." Sora responded as he was in the bottom of the pile.

"Excuse me?!"

The exchange between the four continued as Blake looked on, clearly not wanting to get involved. She decided to call it a night as she blew out the candles. Soon, everyone went back to their sleeping bags. A big day was ahead of them in the morning.

* * *

Hey y'all :)

If you guys are wondering what happened with my other story, Fate/Grimm World, then I'll be blunt and say that I honestly had no idea where I wanted to go with the story in the long run. There's also the fact that RWBY now has progressed and changed a lot and thus deviated from how I wanted to incorporate and alter plot elements. I believe it was Volume 4 or 5 when I started writing that story and with the end of Volume 7, the plot looks almost unrecognizable. Plus, I did feel a bit daunted trying to balance the character dynamics of the four Servants I chose; not gonna lie, writing Gilgamesh was going to be an experience. Admittedly I did not fully plan out how four drastically differing Servants would function in their new settings and how they would interact with each other and the RWBY characters. I wanted to go for an Avengers-like dynamic (being a team of heroes being brought together all the sudden and having to work together despite all their differences) but it was my first story ever and I had the biggest writing block trying to devise the next chapter. So suffice to say, I'm unfortunately not continuing that story… unless some of ya wanna let me know if you are interested in picking that story up. If y'all are up to it, let me know.

This story serves as a sort of fresh start on my attempt to at least write (or just make an alternate adaptation of) a story. Since I have a ton of Kingdom Hearts in general known, this is easier on me. As much as I love the Fate series, it would've been a hassle to constantly refer to and research a lot of the material since the series is a history textbook in of itself. Including **four** Servants and the fact that I wanted to incorporate FGO elements such as Beasts and even pre-existing Servants popping in was gonna be a lot of work (keep in mind that I'm a college student and that's already tons of work). That doesn't mean I'll fully give up on incorporating some things from Fate… like including our boy Charlemange :). Yes, this is _the _Charlemagne from Extella Link, but I've thought of some details of his situation on Remnant and his arrival. I really wish you can add a third crossover category so this story could be in both Fate x RWBY and Kingdom Hearts x RWBY, but I shall stick with the latter since I plan this to mainly center around Sora.

_Maybe I'll just upload this story on both crossover categories, but there's no point since this is more of a Kingdom Hearts story._

I will be honest, I might lose the spark again and stop the updates for this story yet I know a lot more about Kingdom Hearts so this might be less strenuous than what I wanted to do in Fate/Grimm World. The title thing I did with the previous story will still be a tradition I'll follow. Watchmen is one of my favorite pieces of literature and I found it neat that chapter names were references to things in media and culture, so if people in reviews correctly point out the references of my chapter names, I'll give those people a shout out on the next chapter.

Peace,  
Re-Eternal


	2. Chapter 2: Should I Take the Leap

Answer to last chapter's title: First word of "Face My Fears" by Utada Hikaru

Alright I didn't expect to write a 10k word chapter, but I got to where I wanted to leave off on. We knocked off the first three episodes of Volume 1 and now is the time to cover the time at Beacon. It admittedly took a few MONTHS to write the first chapter due to on-and-off writing, but the last third (Sora on the air transport and Charlemagne's introduction) was knocked down within a week. I expect my chapters to be on average longer than the chapters from my previous story but probably not as long as the first chapter. With that being said, let's continue…

* * *

**Ch.2 - Should I Take the Leap**

Sora opened his eyes as he saw the morning rays shine through the windows. He sat up for a few seconds to stare at nothing before having a big yawn. "Ugh, a few more minutes…", as he went to lay back down. That was until he suddenly saw the face of Charlemagne looking down on him.

A surprised Sora did not expect to see him there, so he jumped. "Woah!"

"Haha, I didn't take you to be a lazy slouch, Sora." Charlemagne jokingly said as he resumed packing up his sleeping bag. Meanwhile, Sora had a feeling of deja vu.

"What's the current time?"

"Hmm, lemme check my Scroll… it's about 8 am right now. So we have around 2 hours until the Initiation begins. I already brushed my teeth, so I'll wait for you to do the same so we can eat breakfast together!"

Sora nodded, "That sounds like a plan!"

For the next couple of hours, Sora first went to the bathroom in order to tidy himself up. After that he rejoined Charlemagne to go eat breakfast. Charlemagne told Sora that Jaune was already at the dining hall, so by the time they arrived Jaune was already sitting at table while saving two spots for them. The dining hall food was comparable to restaurant food admittedly. If one wants to consume enough energy and nutrients to feel great throughout the day, then the dining hall staff was doing their job well… especially for the orange-haired girl who has been constantly rambling to the man with a magenta highlight ever since Sora began getting ready for the day. All those pancakes with syrup are definitely gonna keep her on her toes. After breakfast, the boys went to the locker room to gear up. Jaune had to go find his locker separate from the others, but they soon found him being quite lost.

"I hope Jaune finds his locker before we are called in. By the way, I find it cool that you can just call your locker from any location and it flies to you like a rocket." Sora said while putting on his jacket.

"For a school to train fighters, I guess you always have to be prepared for unexpected confrontations." Charlemagne fastened the sheathe on his person before closing the locker door. "So since teams are being decided based on what happens during Initiation, you down to meet up with one another and team up?"

With a smirk, Sora held his hand out for a bro handshake. "I'm game!"

"Then it is decided!" Charlemagne returned the handshake. After that, they noticed Jaune trying to strike up a conversation with Weiss again and it looked to be failing like last time. There was another girl in that conversation, a certain red-haired Spartan-themed student.

"Woah! That's Pyrrha Nikos the 'Invincible Girl', winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament four consecutive times! She attends this place too? Talk about awesome company!" Her title cannot be understated. Charlemagne has witnessed what Pyrrha can do on TV, and her combat prowess can make the average Huntsman look amateurish.

Sora, of course, did not know much about other continents so he had to guess that Pyrrha was very famous throughout Remnant. "I believe I saw her on a cereal box." He then saw that Ruby and Yang were nearby, watching the exchange too. The two sisters saw Sora and Charlemagne approach them as all four of them together soon watched the scene play on.

"Yeesh, Weiss giving Jaune that harsh treatment for not knowing who Pyrrha is. I get she's famous and all, but Weiss is practically worshipping her like a goddess." Yang watched Jaune visibly deflate.

"Actually, Jaune, I think you will make a great leader!" Pyrrha complimented Jaune.

"D'oh, stop it!"

"Seriously, please stop it. This kind of behavior should not be encouraged!" Weiss angrily said.

"Woah, did Jaune just finesse Pyrrha? Mad props to that guy." That was something Charlemagne respected.

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for Team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick! Now, I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings, find a place for you. What do you say?" Jaune told Weiss as he started moving a lot closer to Weiss.

"Now he's getting uncomfortably near Weiss." Ruby said while cringing.

"Someone should probably do something before this gets way too out of hand." Sora mentioned, but saw that Pyrrha was already on the job. She launched her spear towards Jaune, which propelled him towards a locker via clipping his hood. He ended up hanging from the locker and soon after the intercom system activated.

"**Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."**

"It was nice meeting you!" Pyrrha said as she retrieved Milo and Jaune fell to the ground, muttering "likewise." Having seen it all from a distance, the four observers finally approached Jaune.

"Having trouble there, lady killer?" Sora asked.

"I don't understand. My dad said all women look for is confidence! Where did I go wrong?" Jaune complained as he took Ruby's offered hand and got up.

"Maybe 'Snow Angel' wasn't the best start." Yang suggested as Charlemagne was trying to hold in a laugh.

"Come on, Jaune, let's go." Ruby said, supporting Jaune as the group walked towards Beacon Cliff.

* * *

The first-year Beacon students filed onto the cliffside overlooking the Emerald Forest. From the airship transports yesterday, they flew over some of the Emerald Forest and got to see the massive scope of it. Now that they are looking at it from a more leveled perspective, it stretched out considerably far; a sea of emerald like the name implies. It looks like they will have to go inside in order to participate in the Initiation.

Wondering how they would be transported into the forest, Sora scoped the area. There weren't any signs of nearby airships that could drop them down, nor any signs of equipment such as parachutes that would allow them to touch down safely. Quite frankly, there were just metal tiles lined up next to each other as each student occupied one tile. Their group of five were at the end of the line, Sora being the very last. He stepped on the tile and immediately felt the tile slightly decline under his weight; like it was being held by a spring mechanism. Sora soon connected the dots.

"_Oh, it's gonna be like that, is it?"_

Well a landing strategy was in the works. If he wasn't obligated to hide his true power, then Sora can easily just take the fall at the cost of leaving a crater on the ground. He has fallen from much greater heights, but he must blend in. Sora was taken out of his thoughts when Ozpin started speaking.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... **today**." Glynda added.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Ozpin stated.

From the corner of his vision, Sora saw Ruby's world shatter around her as well as the orange-haired girl saying "See! I told you!" to her friend. He took a glance at Charlemagne with a look that said "What should we do?"

Charlemagne leaned into Sora's ear after he hatched a plan and whispered it to him.

Ozpin continued talking, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you **will** die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions? Good, now take your positions." The Headmaster ignored Jaune raising his hand.

All the students except for Jaune fell into combat stances. Sora summoned Kingdom Key and crouched slightly with the Keyblade extended out to the side with one-hand. Charlemagne drew out a serrated blue and silver longsword from his sheathe and held it vertically in front of his face, but slightly angled so he could see in front of him. One by one, students were being launched.

"So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" Jaune asked meekly.

Amused by this, Ozpin replied, "No, you will be falling using your own landing strategy."

"Uh-huh, yeah… What exactly is this landing strategYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Only the two boys remained. Ozpin looked at the two for a moment before nodding his head, then both boys were launched at the same time. He watched the flying students as he took a sip from his mug of hot cocoa. Meanwhile, Glynda was looking at her Scroll pad, watching the live footage of each student. He laid her eyes on the ones of Sora and Charlemagne before being reminded of something.

"You do realize that with your admission of Sora and Mr. Magnus' rather last-minute addition, we have two extra students who will not be a part of a full team."

"Yet it seems they wouldn't need one. There's more to Sora and Charlemagne Magnus than meets the eye."

Glynda looked confused, "What do you exactly mean by that," there was a slight pause when her eyes widened a bit, "are you telling me that those two kids—"

Ozpin looked Glynda straight into the eyes. "I know magic when I see it. Lifetimes upon lifetimes have taught me to discern Semblance and Dust from true magic. From what Sora has shown that night of the Dust store robbery and from footage of duels Mr. Magnus has had, there is no mistaking it. And this is why I believe we can slightly alter the rules a bit."

"Are you suggesting a team with just two of them? I don't believe that has ever been done before."

"The potency of magic cannot be underestimated, even when they are holding back. With just two of them on a team of their own, they can still be one of the best teams, if not the best, in Beacon history. I call into question their origin stories, but right now I believe they will be invaluable assets to our true cause; more than just mere pawns on the chess board. They seem like good kids." Ozpin said while gripping his cane a bit harder. Glynda stayed silent as she turned her attention to the Emerald Forest, specifically the direction where Sora and Charlemagne went.

So that's why Ozpin decided to include an extra chess piece at the very last minute.

* * *

The soaring students began dispersing as they started performing their landing strategies. However, being the two to be launched at the same time, Sora and Charlemagne had similar trajectories yet there was still some distance between them.

"Oi! Sora, now!" Charlemagne held out his free hand before a blue winged, javelin-like weapon appeared floating alongside Charlemagne.

"Right!" Sora activated Flowmotion and kicked off the air, using air pressure to propel him to the winged javelin as he grabbed it by the handle. The javelin followed Charlemagne, which meant Sora was going where Charlemagne was falling. As they found themselves heading towards a clearing next to a hill, Charlemagne had his right arm across his body, sword behind his head. Right as they were relatively close to the ground, Charlemagne did a horizontal swing towards the ground and a torrent of wind was released, slowing down his fall. As Charlemagne made for a landing, Sora leapt from the javelin onto a tree branch. He did a few loops with Flowmotion before jumping to the hillside, it being steep enough for Sora to slide down and make a roll once at the bottom. The two boys then looked one another in the eyes, confirming that they are now teammates.

"Hey, I think I saw what might be the temple about that way," Sora pointed towards the direction he saw it. "I think we should be able to get there in about an hour."

"By all means, lead the way." The boys began walking, but Charlemagne had to express his hype.

"Wooo! I'm glad to see that my idea worked out so well!" Charlemagne cheered. "With the two of us together, we will be kicking ass like no tomorrow!"

Sora had a chuckle with Charlemagne's antics and his way of phrasing things at times. "Seeing that we are now officially teammates, I think it's a good time to tell me a bit about your weapons and Semblance, Charlie."

"I guess that's fair!" Charlemagne accepted Sora's suggestion as he held up his sword. "This is my sword, Joyeuse. This sword is imbued with multiple Dust crystals within the blade, hence how I can call upon the elements such as that gust of wind I conjured. As for my Semblance, it's a once-in-a-generation hereditary Semblance named "Holy Knight Emperor" that allows me to summon the family heirlooms such as the javelin. I actually have potential to access more copies of the javelin, but I can really only conjure up to four of them right now." Charlemagne called upon the javelin he used earlier and a red/black counterpart also appeared before he dismissed them both. "They can also shoot Aura lasers!"

"Lasers? That's pretty nifty. And how many copies are there of these javelins?"

"Hmm, I believe six of the reds and six of the blues, so twelve in total existed."

"T-twelve?!" Sora exclaimed, "that's nuts!"

"I know right! Someday, I will master the ability to use 'em all! Another heirloom is this cool-looking lance..."

While the two were geeking out about the weapons Charlemagne has and can have in his disposal, they didn't notice a Grimm stalk them from behind. Appearing like an undead werewolf from Hell, the Beowolf used their distraction as an opportunity to pounce. It cleared the distance in a relatively short amount of time as the Beowolf was now behind the two, ready to tear them apart. The surprise attack succeeded… in failing to succeed since the Beowolf was surprised itself to find a javelin suddenly fired onto its side as it flew into a tree. As the javelin disappeared, so too did the Beowolf in black dust.

"I think we might've found ourselves in Grimm territory." Sora said cautiously as he got in a battle stance, as Charlemagne got in his own stance. True to his words, a circle of Beowolves surrounded the boys. Their bloodthirsty eyes were fixed on them, eagerly waiting to make them suffer yet it did not faze the impassive eyes of the two boys. If anything, people would say that they expected a lot more. Sora turned his head towards Charlemagne, "Hey Charlie. To make this more interesting, let's see how many Grimm we can each exterminate and determine who exterminated more by the end of this fight?"

"A bet?" Charlemagne couldn't help but smile. "What are the stakes?"

"Uhh… a sense of accomplishment? I didn't really think that part through."

"Meh, fine by me."

With that being said, they both launched themselves at a different Beowolf and started to clean house. The Grimm weren't expecting their speed, so the Grimm on Sora's end had a second to process Sora flash-stepping one of their brethren. Meanwhile this was Sora's first time fighting the Grimm. As he made to defeat a few more, he made some comparisons to the Heartless. He did read a book about common Grimm types and although individual Grimm have the potential for a lot more intelligence than Heartless, Heartless were more dangerous in vast quantities and with their plethora of variants with different degrees of power. Blocking and countering another Beowolf, Sora rolled away from a stray claw aimed for his face. The claw hit an unsuspecting Beowolf as Sora used this moment of their confusion to bisect both of those Beowolves. Sora leapt onto a tree branch to see how much Grimm was remaining and also to see how Charlemagne was doing.

Sora had to say, he was impressed. Charlemagne displayed a level of swordsmanship even rivaling some of the best swordsmen he's met over the past few years. He flowed through the crowd of Beowolves like water. As he leapt into the air, he dove to cleanly decapitate a Beowolf. He didn't waste a moment as he was already upon another one and made a thrust to stab it. Once he released Joyeuse from the corpse, Charlemagne quickly struck down a Grimm behind him with an overhead swing. From that, four Beowolves quickly replaced it, all coming in like a black wave of maliciousness. Undeterred, Charlemagne prepped for a wide horizontal swing. Sora saw some embers build up on the blade and soon saw a horizontal arc of flame once Charlemagne completed his attack. The black dust of the Grimm was what remained. Content with the showcase, Sora went back with dispatching his half of Grimm. A few minutes later, the last Grimm dispersed as the two boys regrouped, both of which haven't even broken a sweat.

"Well there's that. How much Grimm did you defeat?" Sora asked as he rested Kingdom Key on his shoulders.

"25, how about you?" Charlemagne put Joyeuse back into the sheathe.

Sora threw his hands in the air as he desummoned Kingdom Key, "Yes! 27 defeated!"

"Gahh! I think if I pushed myself a bit more, I could've beaten your number! But still, you did great. I saw glimpses of you in action and you really lived up to that video."

"Same for you! I thought for a moment that you were dancing with that sword."

"Hehe, I guess we are both really cut out for this program. Let's continue on, shall we?" The boys then continued on to the temple.

* * *

Back on Beacon Cliff, Ozpin and Glynda watched the camera footage of Sora and Charlemagne fighting the pack of Beowolves. "It looks like you got what you wanted. Sora and Mr. Magnus are the last pair to be formed, and from what I just saw from each of them was at least at the level of a fourth-year student. When the boys do get to the temple, I'll activate the switch that will expose the chess piece allocated for them." Glynda stated as she pushed her glasses up as Ozpin looked back at the Emerald Forest. Glynda walked forward to be beside her boss. "Tell me, Ozpin. What do you think of those boys?"

Taking a sip of his mug, Ozpin contemplated for a bit before responding, "I was always skeptical of the backgrounds that they provided. By no means would a person from an isolated island within Grimm territory manage to find their way here without being transported by a sufficiently armed aircraft or ship. As for Mr. Magnus, a family with as much prestige as the Magnus family should have a rich history recorded generations ago. This includes the fact that they reside in the Kingdom of Atlas where all prestigious families date back centuries. Yet, the Magnus family got to where they're at in the span of five years. Before that, no history at all."

"Despite all of that, you willingly took the two boys in while you knew that their backgrounds might not be all truth. I can see from their combat prowess that they may prove invaluable, but what makes you trust them so much?"

"This old wizard has learned to see through the intents of many from living this long." Ozpin chuckled as he later became serious. "Charlemagne seems to hold a lot more wisdom then he shows and his moral compass leans towards what is right and to bring wellbeing to those around him. Quite fitting for a benevolent king. As for Sora… from what I saw from the "meteorite", that light... I'm sure that it is **his** light."

"The God of Light?"

"The very same. I cannot mistaken the light that came from the being responsible for giving me these chances for any other light. His love for humanity might warrant him to send extra help, but that is something we will take in order to defeat the Queen."

Ozpin tightened his hold on his cane. "To defeat Salem."

* * *

About an hour has passed and Sora and Charlemagne have finally made it to the temple. They made their way around the temple to observe the objects that were on pedestals.

"Chess pieces?" Charlemagne said curiously as he examined a gold rook. Some of the pedestals were missing a piece, signifying that they weren't the first ones here. The ground around the temple shook a tiny bit as they felt the rumbling at the center of the temple. Both students turned their attention towards the center as a small opening appeared with another pedestal coming from it. Like all the other pedestals, this one also had a chess piece albeit it was much different from all the other ones. Not only was it the only king piece, but it was carved from polish opal. It refracted the sunlight of the noon sun, causing it to shine the spectrum of the rainbow all over the surface. They were so mesmerized by the piece that Charlemagne had to snap out of it and cough to get Sora's attention. "Welll, u-um, that did appear as soon as we got here."

"Soooo I guess this one is meant for us then." Sora made to approach the piece before looking at Charlemagne for approval. The black/white haired man shrugged before making a face that said "I guess so." Slowly making his way to the pedestal, Sora grabbed the king piece tentatively before examining it in his hands. Soon after, the pedestal went back into the ground and the opening closed up. "Now that we got ahold of a relic, we make our way back to the top of the cliff. Oh wait, isn't that Yang and Blake?"

From the nearby shrubbery, the pair of girls walked out to observe the temple. Yang was the first to speak. "Think this is it?", she asked before noticing the two who got there shortly before them, "Oh hey boys! How long have you been here?"

"We just got here a minute ago! I guess we aren't the first ones here!" Sora said as he motioned towards the chess pieces.

"Chess pieces?" asked a confused Blake as she looked at a black king. She then sensed someone walk towards her to see the other boy present, probably Sora's partner.

"Hey, you are Blake right? You've already met Sora but I haven't gotten to introduce myself yet since I fell asleep at that time. My name is Charlemagne Magnus, but call me Charlie, alright?" Charlemagne said while pointing a thumb to himself.

Blake perked up a bit. "Charlemagne Magnus? As in the royal Magnus family of Atlas? So I'm guessing you are the son of a major zealous figure who strives to make every Human and Faunus equal in the name of his religion?"

Charlemagne laughed with a bit of embarrassment, "Yeah, the very same man."

This got Yang intrigued. "Royal family, huh? I guess you are like Lil' Princess Weiss Schnee then."

"Yeah, I'm technically royalty. But it's sorta a heavy thing to bear once you've been exposed to it for a while. Being in the limelight as your personal life becomes more public, having responsibilities pushed into your arms. That's one of the reasons why I tell people to call me 'Charlie'; to call me by a relatively normal name so I can be just like you guys."

"Well now that you've said all of that, I find it better that you wanna stay normal. I respect that, Charlie." Yang responded with a thumbs up, which got a smile from Charlemagne. The blond walked around until stopping in front of one piece, "How about a cute lil pony?" That got a confirmation from Blake as Yang took the gold knight piece, content with how relatively easy it was to get here. Suddenly, a scream was heard.

"Some girl's in trouble! Do you guys hear that?"

Sora crossed his arms, "I don't think that was a girl, Yang."

While they were focused on the identity of the scream, Charlemagne and Blake noticed something falling in the air. "Hey isn't that… Ruby?"

"HEEAADDDSSS UUUUPPPPPP!" Ruby yelled as she fell towards the ground. Charlemagne ran to approximately where she was going to land and summoned a javelin. He grabbed it by the handle and the javelin swung him up into the air, letting him reach Ruby and grab her. All seemed well until Jaune came flying out of nowhere and hurtling towards them. Luckily, Sora came in with Flowmotion active and caught Jaune before a collision happened. All of them landed on the floor safely as Charlemagne set Ruby down and Sora released his grip on Jaune's back.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked Yang.

"I—"

"YEE HAWW!" An Ursa suddenly emerged from the woods with the orange haired girl riding on its back. It continued struggling until pink smoke emitted from its backside, slumping as the girl rolled off. "Awww… it's broken," she said dejectedly. Her partner later caught up with her, clearly out of breath.

"Nora! Please… never do that again." His words fell on deaf ears as Nora zipped to one of the pedestals to grab a gold rook piece.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"NORA!"

"Coming, Ren!"

"Did that girl just ride on an Ursa?"

"I—"

A screech interrupted her as a giant scorpion Grimm bursted into the scene, tailing a very urgent Pyrrha. "Jaune!"

"Pyrrha!"

Regaining her bearings after the fall, Ruby was wide-eyed seeing the giant Grimm as she ran back with the group. "Woah!"

"Ruby!"

"Yang!" Ruby tried going in for a hug, but was interrupted when Nora came between them. "Nora!"

"What is going on right now? I'm lost." Sora said as he was watching all the mayhem.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?"

That was the final straw for Yang as she ignited in flames and with red eyes. "**I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something **_**crazy**_ **happens again?!"**

A few seconds of silence had passed as the Death Stalker continued to chase Pyrrha in the distance. Looking around, Ruby seemed like she was looking for someone. "Weiss should be here by now," she said unbeknownst to what was above their heads, until Charlemagne pointed it out. "I think your partner is up there…"

Lo' and behold, Weiss was hanging by the claws of a Nevermore for dear life. "I can't believe you just left me here!"

"I told you to jump!"

"She's gonna fall."

"She'll be fine."

"She's falling." Weiss began a free-fall towards the ground, but Jaune had already climbed up a tree when they first saw the Nevermore and already leapt off to save Weiss.

"Well Jaune is playing the knight in shining armor this time. Let's see how Act 3 will play out," Charlemagne said. He wasn't surprised to see Jaune momentarily forget that gravity existed as he panicked while having Weiss in his arms. The man landed roughly on the ground and soon after, Weiss right on his back. "Ouch…"

"My hero."

"My back…"

As everyone got together, Pyrrha was knocked over by the Death Stalker and landed near the group.

Yang exclaimed, "Great, now we can all die together!"

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby then charged at the Death Stalker with a war cry.

"Ruby, wait!"

Ruby, still screaming, fires Crescent Rose and charges at the oncoming Death Stalker. When the two meet, the Grimm swipes Ruby away and she is knocked back. "D-d-don't worry, I'm fine!" She shot at the Grimm before making an attempt to regroup, the Grimm on her tail.

"This is bad!" Both Sora and Charlemagne rushed towards Ruby, but noticed the Nevermore began raining down razor-sharp feathers. The hail of feathers fell mainly between the boys and Ruby as the girl was forced to halt and the boys resorted to deflecting and avoiding some feathers.

"Ruby!" The girl looked back at the Death Stalker, seeing the stinger primed to skewer her. As the boys finally made an opening, they were about to rush to Ruby until a white blur sped past them.

"You are so childish!"

Ruby opened her eyes to see the Death Stalker's stinger encased in ice courtesy of Weiss, who continued to berate her. "And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this." Ruby responded.

"You're fine," Weiss said as she walked away. Ruby followed mumbling "normal knees."

"I'm so happy that you're safe!" Yang went to hug Ruby, squeezing the air out of her.

"I think she was safe before you cut off her oxygen supply," said Charlemagne.

Jaune had his head to the sky as he noticed the Nevermore starting to circle back. "Guy? The thing is circling back, what do we do?"

"Well, the objective is over there," Weiss gestured towards the relics, "we can try to avoid anymore confrontation."

"Weiss is righ—" Ruby was interrupted by the sound of breaking ice. The Death Stalker managed to pry its stinger out of Weiss' ice, now becoming more agitated that it wasn't able to kill Ruby that time.

"I don't see a way we can avoid a fight now. Outrunning both of them is most definitely not possible." Sora got into a combat stance. He observed the Nevermore flying around as well as the Death Stalker slowly creeping its way towards the group. That's when he noticed that a bit of ice was still on the stinger and that the area around the stinger looked a bit more brittle than before, maybe from the coldness of the ice and the Death Stalker's struggling. Sora began formulating a plan.

"The pairs that haven't retrieved a relic yet, go do them. After that, people who can easily run and shoot follow me while those who can face the Deathstalker head-on keep that thing busy!" Sora said as he began to dig into his pocket for a certain Keychain. Ruby grabbed a gold knight while Jaune grabbed a gold rook piece. Having found the one ideal for this situation, Sora took out the Keychain for Kingdom Key and swapped it for one with a silver star with a glimmering purple center. The Keyblade shone before transitioning into a different shape. The blade became wider as the color turned into a cascade of yellow, blue, and purple streams. At the rounded-end was a star. Shooting Star flourished and was at the ready.

"Let's do this!" Sora ran towards the direction of the Nevermore, followed by Ren, Blake, Weiss, and Ruby. The group that ran towards the Death Stalker was Charlemagne, Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, and Jaune.

Both groups started to confront their respective Grimm. The Nevermore group began to run in a set circle, half of them running clockwise while the other half counter-clockwise as they were strafing the Nevermore from multiple directions. Hails of feathers came down in multiple directions, but the feathers accumulated and started to encircle the Death Stalker. Those fighting the Deathstalker were relatively keeping it in one spot, noticing what the other group was going for. Once the Deathstalker had no openings to get out of, Sora began to put things in motion.

"Blake, Weiss! Give me a boost!" Sora ran towards the Nevermore while Blake prepped Gambol Shroud into its sickle form before throwing it. Sora caught Gambol Shroud before allowing Blake to grab the ribbon and spin him around before he released it. As he was flying towards the Grimm, Weiss summoned a Glyph to give Sora a boost. Powering up, Sora's clothes changed into a dark blue color while his pants had stars imprinted on them. But not only that, Shooting Star extended out before splitting into two parts, as Sora now had an arrow-gun in each hand.

Sora began shooting the Nevermore's eyes in attempts to blind it. The barrage of bullets prevented the Nevermore from having a clear vision as it began to fly blind. Well placed shots by Ruby and Ren to the wings caused the Nevermore to lose altitude. Glyphs were summoned to redirect the Nevermore towards the Death Stalker.

Back with the Death Stalker group, they made sure the Death Stalker was now in an enclosed space. The Death Stalker lashed out with its stinger, but Jaune was ready and shielded the blow, holding the stinger at bay.

"Pyrrha! Now's the chance!" The red-head threw Akoúo̱ with precision as it aimed for the weakened area around the stinger. When the shield cleanly sliced the stinger off, Jaune was ready for the next step. "Yang!"

As the stinger was still in the air, the brawler ran up and with built-up power, punched the stinger even higher into the air, shooting a shotgun round to boost it even further. Missing a stinger, the Grimm made an attempt to push the students back with the pincers but was met with two winged-javelins holding one pincer back as well as Yang holding off the other. By this time the Nevermore was heading straight for the Death Stalker. The two groups regrouped as Sora, who was still on the Nevermore, jumped off the avian Grimm before it dive-bombed the scorpion Grimm. Luckily, the encirclement was big enough for no students to be caught in the crash. Weiss and Charlemagne, with both blades shimmering with cold Aura, stabbed the area around the Grimm and ensnared them with ice.

"Nora!" Ren called while holding his Aura-covered hands.

"Coming, Renny!" She ran towards him as she leapt on his hands. Ren then used his power to heave Nora up, successfully vaulting her. Nora giggled in the air and by the apex of her flight noticed the Death Stalker's stinger falling near her, perfectly aligned above the Nevermore and Death Stalker's head. With a devilish grin, Nora waited for the stinger to reach her level before slamming it down with Magnhild. The stinger soared true and pierced both heads of the Grimm. And for good measure, Charlemagne called upon a gray mace with a blue/white shaft to further drive the stinger in while Ruby blitzed in with a trail of roses as she caught the neck of the Nevermore with her scythe. One sniper round had enough recoil to carry the scythe through and decapitate the bird. Ruby zipped back to rejoin the group as both Grimm dispersed.

"We did it!" Ruby cheered. Everyone began giving each other compliments on their contributions. Charlemagne was still at the spot where the Grimm dispersed as he sat on the ground to relax for a bit.

* * *

The two teachers in the cliff watched the entire fight with the security footage. They couldn't help but be impressed by the students who managed to fight two large Grimm with not only a good amount of coordination, but with speed as well. For a group of first years, their battle was relatively short.

"Well that was a level of coordination I have not seen since Team STRQ," Ozpin had a look of reminiscence. He also had no doubt in his mind that because Sora and Charlemagne were included, the fight became easier.

"I believe those were the two major Grimm within the general Initiation grounds, so coming back here should be enough." Glynda reported as she accounted for all groups in the Initiation. But fate wouldn't make it easy for anyone as an alert suddenly blared on the Scroll.

"More Grimm detected? No, one Grimm with a big signature?!" A panicked Glynda hooked up to the cameras within the massive surge. What both teachers saw sent chills down their spines. The Grimm was mildly larger than the Death Stalker that was just defeated. It had the appearance of a shadowy panther, yet its legs and paws were covered in bone scales and dagger-like spikes running along its spine all the way to the tip of its finned tail. The red eyes screamed for carnage as it began sprinting towards the relic temple.

"A Mishipeshu?!" Ozpin could not believe such a Grimm was able to get in here unnoticed. By the looks of it, the Mishipeshu was still quite young, but that's the scary part. A young Mishipeshu is still dangerous for even a group of Huntsmen to deal with, but dealing with the more mature ones and the Alphas required exceptional Huntsmen… and regardless, Mishipeshu encounters have a less than favorable mortality rate. Yet at the same time, Ozpin had a feeling the students didn't need additional help.

"We need to send backup now!"

"Glynda, I know the dangers of even an adolescent Mishipeshu… but I think it's going to be ok."

"What?!" Glynda was shocked by Ozpin's decision. She has had a few encounters with Mishipeshu before, and they were some of the most memory-imprinting fights she has ever participated in.

"Have faith in them. Have faith in Sora and Mr. Magnus. I feel their presence alone can still win them the battle," Ozpin said as he looked Glynda straight into the eyes. After a few seconds of an intense staredown, Glynda relented as she looked back to her Scroll pad, watching the big red dot converge into the temple.

* * *

As the students continued celebrating, none of them really noticed the ground beginning to rhythmically shake; as if a large four-legged animal was coming straight at them. Charlemagne slowly stood up to find where the source of the shaking was while a few people from the group noticed what Charlemagne was doing.

"Hey Charlie, is something the matter?" Pyrrha asked.

"I feel something is coming, this might be bad. I think we needa get out of here quick—!" He never got the chance to finish that sentence when an abysmally loud roar echoed through the clearing followed by a mass of black charging straight towards Charlemagne. The roar made everyone cover their ears momentarily and amidst the confusion a black mass was charging straight towards Charlemagne. Unfortunately for the man, he was not prepared enough to evade the jaw that scooped him up as the Mishipeshu continued its direction.

"Charlie!" Everyone was in shock as they began chasing the Mishipeshu as fast as possible. The beast was unbelievably fast for its size, so it took more than running to catch up with it. Ruby using her speed Semblance, Sora with Flowmotion, Yang propelling herself with shotgun rounds, Blake swinging around, and Weiss summoning Glyphs in front of herself and everyone else without some sort of easy speed boost to run faster. After trekking through the forest, they were met with a sort of big ruins on a cliffside, towering above a massive ravine. That is when the Mishipeshu began to slow down.

Ruby got ahead of the whole group to see if Charlemagne was ok and what she saw made her relieved. He managed to hold the jaws at bay using two winged javelins to keep the jaws pried open as he held on to one of the fangs to not fall off. As the Mishipeshu halted, it lashed its head around and Charlemagne was thrown off to the direction of the group. As he fell onto the ground, he made a combat roll to even out the momentum and was on his feet with no injuries.

"W-woahh! That was so scary! That big cat thing just swooped in out of nowhere and decided to choose me as its toy!" Charlemagne angrily said as he pointed his sword towards the Grimm.

"That isn't just any cat thing… i-it's a Mishipeshu." Blake couldn't help but slightly be fearful as she slowly raised Gambol Shroud in katana form. "Even a young one such as this is more dangerous than the Nevermore and Death Stalker combined."

"Well then what should we do?" Ren asked.

"I think we have no other choice but to fight it," Charlemagne answered.

Sora summoned Shooting Star again and got into a battle stance, "We have to stop this thing, here and now!"

A fired up Yang bumped both of her fists together, "Alright! Let's send this kitty to the pound!"

Before they had the chance to charge at the Grimm, it let out another loud roar, but this time it was calling out to something. Not long after, a swarm of small Taijitu began appearing and heading towards the group. This made Ren gulp.

"_At least they aren't the mature ones."_

All the students proceeded to charge forward to meet the wave of Taijitu. Attacking and defending in any way they could, they progressively made work of the swarm. The Mishipeshu observed the battle as it turned its head towards Weiss, who was occupied with fighting off some Taijitu. The large Grimm decided to target her for its next attack. Opening its maw, something began to charge within the mouth. This is something Jaune and Pyrrha noticed before running to Weiss.

"Weiss!" The girl turned her attention as she finally saw what was happening and by the time the other two got to her and put their shields up, a stream of high-pressure water shot out of the mouth of the Mishipeshu and collided with the shields. They nearly got blown back by the force, but held strong. Even after blocking the shot, their Auras took a hit as they flickered their respective Aura colors before they subsided. There was no doubt in their minds that one shot would've done more than just break their Aura. As the rest of the Taijitu were disposed of, the Mishipeshu made a defiant roar before approaching the group.

"Here it comes!" Ruby flourished her scythe before embedding it to the ground to shoot fire Dust rounds. The shots did not impede the charging Grimm as it pounced on the group. Everyone jumped out of the way but the Grimm's surprising speed proved itself when it made a 360 degree sweep with its tail. While Sora, Charlemagne, and Pyrrha were prepared and vaulted over the tail, everyone else was knocked off their feet. Blake notably fell over the edge of the ravine, scaring some of the others, but she quickly threw her sickle to latch onto something and swung up to one of the towers.

As she got up, Ruby looked at the ruins before making a suggestion. "Hey guys! We should go deeper into the ruins!"

"Huh?! They look unstable!" Weiss said as she deflected a paw away with a Glyph while Nora retaliated with knocking the paw even further.

"Trust me! We can think of something to use to our advantage!"

As the others began running further into the ruins, Weiss begrudgingly did so too. To their surprise, the Mishipeshu was tailing them on the bridge. With a surprising amount of control, the Mishipeshu was able to traverse the bridge (being narrow compared to the Grimm) without compromising the structural stability.

"Of course that big ass cat can do that!" Yang screamed. She and the others shot out various Dust rounds to slow it down. While it did little to slow it down, they were able to run to various parts of the ruins to spread out.

"You mind sharing what you have in store?" Sora went up to Ruby as the Mishipeshu made its way to them.

"It's crazy and we might have to do a bit of renovation to this place."

"Well that's splendid!" Jaune said sarcastically. They couldn't think of something else, so they decided to let Ruby run it. The Grimm stopped for a second before charging another water shot. Ruby confirmed her suspicions that the Mishipeshu had to stay in place while charging the shot. It completed the charge as it shot one of the towers down. Ren, Blake, and Weiss were forced to jump off the tower as they used the falling rubble to traverse to another elevated place. Ruby then had a lightbulb that lit up.

"I got it! Let the Grimm get to the center area and make it stay there while some of us prepare the big finale!" Ruby said as she dashed around to inform everyone.

They continued to combat the Mishipeshu as it progressively made its way to the center of the ruins, where it wasn't narrow. When it got to the center, the Grimm had more space to attack so it started using more wide sweeping attacks. A back-paw strike attempted to strike Charlemagne but the man jumped over the paw and while running along the arm made a few cuts, noting how the ankles were mainly protected by the bone scales.

"Let's weaken the armor on the legs!" Charlemagne said as he sidestepped to avoid being mauled by the oversized claws before summoning his mace and twirling to build up force before striking the elbow scales. That cracked the armor a considerable amount as Charlemagne was certain another strike will expose the joint.

The hard hitters started targeting those joints while everyone else started to distract the Grimm with barrages of Dust rounds. While it was occupied with Weiss shooting Lightning rounds on its face, Yang got to the right rear ankle and unleashed a full barrage of shotgun-powered punches before whittling away the scales to reveal the ankle. She backed off before the Mishipeshu could kick her away. Sora kept shooting Fire projectiles on the other rear ankle, Firaga being a bit much so to cause no suspicion Sora stuck with the lower-tier spells for now. Not only did it agitate the Mishipeshu, but the heat made the bone weaker so one good swing of the Keyblade chipped enough scales to expose the ankle. Working with the left-frontal ankle, Nora accidently got hit by one of Weiss' stray Lightning rounds. But that proved to be beneficial when Nora got a burst of energy (thanks to her Semblance) and grinned like a mad woman. A gleeful warcry and one good swing from Magnhild was all it took to completely shred the scales off.

By the time the Grimm realized what the students were doing, Charlemagne already capitalized on an opportunity when the Grimm checked on its other ankles. He swung his mace again to clean the last ankle of its scales. "Yes!" Charlemagne landed before noticing in a desperate attempt, the Mishipeshu attempted to bite Charlemagne's head off. "NOT AGAIN!"

He was luckily saved from a second encounter with the big fat jaws. Pyrrha and Jaune kept the lower jaw at bay while Ren and Yang kept the upper jaws pried open. To add some internal damage, Yang shot Fire rounds into the mouth of the beast.

"I. Hope. You're. Hungry!"

This got the Mishipeshu really pissed as it swung its head around to knock the students off. It clearly felt the fire that Yang sent into its body. The water within its body churned to cool down the interior of its body, but that also made the water more violent as it opened its maw charge up a water shot; this looking a lot more violent than last time. This was the cue that Ruby looked for.

"Sora, now!" Ruby signaled.

Unbeknownst to the Grimm, Sora ran along the back of the Grimm and jumped from its head and right in front of the jaw. He already transformed Shooting Star into the dual arrow-guns as he was upside down and aiming both guns at the jaw, specifically the water build-up.

"Take this!" Sora declared as he shot out Thunder projectiles. Each gun shot out a handful as they made contact with the water. Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha also shot a Lightning round once Sora fell below the jaw. The excess water allowed the lightning to course through the entire body of the Mishipeshu. Convulsing from all the electricity, the Mishipeshu shriek in agony as it was rooted in place.

"The ankles!" The more agile combatants (Ruby, Ren, Blake, and Weiss) quickly went to each ankle and gave them a good slice before retreating. As the Mishipeshu fell to its own weight, Charlemagne summoned four winged javelin, which was his limit, and had each javelin pin a paw down.

"You guys head back to the forest! I can hold these for another minute!" Charlemagne had to stay within a certain range of his javelins. The others complied and sprinted towards the forest. Once they crossed the bridge, Weiss went up to Ruby to continue questioning the full plan.

"So with this plan of 'renovating' the place, did you really have to make us waste ALL of our Fire Dust?" Not only did Weiss have to give up all of her Fire Dust, but so did Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake.

"Hey, after what Sora said was true, why not? Weiss, prepare an escape route for Charlie! Sora, end it with a bang!" Ruby ordered.

"Yeah, end it with a Yang!"

"Not helping, Yang!" Sora said as he prepared the second transformation of Shooting Star. He held one gun up as it began to expand and become bigger. The other gun converged as they combined to make one single rocket-launcher looking firearm. He took aim at the center base of the ruins where Charlemagne and the Mishipeshu were. At a closer glance, the base and the bridges around the base were covered in Fire Dust. "Charlie, get out now!"

The man heard as he despawned the javelins and sprinted off the edge, but soon landed on a solid platform via Weiss' glyph as more spawned in front of him to rush back to the forest. Once Charlemagne was a safe distance away, Sora fired a shot from the Magic Launcher towards the Mishipeshu. What resulted as a little more than a firework show. All the Fire Dust created a chain reaction as bridges collapsed and towers fell. The base held true as the Mishipeshu felt all the explosions around it. Only after no bridges connected the base to anything did the base start to crumble under the weight of Mishipeshu and the sustained damage from explosions. As the base finally broke apart and fell into the ravine, so did the Mishipeshu as it fell down roaring its last roar.

"W-we did it…" Blake tiredly said as everyone slumped as they either sat or laid on the ground to get a breather while Charlemagne finally cleared the gap. Sora desummoned his Keyblade and his clothes reverted back to its original color scheme. He noticed Charlemagne run up to him as he finally caught up. They looked at the others for a second before back to each other.

"Good work. Here's to four years of awesomeness!" Charlemagne said as he held up a fist.

"Here's to four years!" Sora returned the statement and fistbumped Charlemagne.

In the distance on top of the cliff, a Seer Grimm observed the entire thing unnoticed.

* * *

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"

A clapping ovation echoed in the auditorium as Team CRDL stepped off the stage for the next group of students. Their faces then flashed on the screen.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by… Jaune Arc!"

"H-huh? Led...by?" Jaune was purely confused.

In the back of the line, Sora leaned towards Charlemagne. "Hey, looks like Team Jaune is a reality." Both boys had a good laugh.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin replied with amusement. Team JNPR stepped down as the next team came up.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

"Whaa?" said a shocked Ruby.

"I'm so proud of you sister!" Yang bear hugged her sister as Blake looked on with mild amusement. Weiss, however, looked extremely offended. Team RWBY walked off the stage as the last two students walked up the stage, confusing almost everyone in attendance.

"This year calls for a slight change in culture. The two that stand before you are additions to the original first-year student body. Not only have they displayed amazing individual prowess, but an ability to work together efficiently in a two-man setting and with full teams. With this they are an elite team who will work their own assignments and will sometimes accompany other teams. You two have retrieved the exclusive opal king piece. Sora. Charlemagne Magnus. From this day forth, you will work together as co-leaders of Team King!"

A standing ovation was given to Team King. Both boys were astounded to work under the title of an elite team. Not only would they do their own work, but they could also work with Teams RWBY and JNPR when the situation called for it.

Ozpin observed the development with a grin. "It looks like things are shaping up to be… an interesting year."

* * *

The view pans through a dark throne room, where it ends up behind the throne. A Seer Grimm is seen by the side of the throne before slowly making its leave. The sound of a finger tapping on the arm rest can be heard resonating in the room.

"Very interesting indeed…"

* * *

Btw, if you want to know what Charlemagne looks like and how he fights, search up something like "fate/extella link charlemagne moveset" on Youtube

Sure some of you noticed I slightly changed the title of the story. I noticed that there's another story that goes by a very similar title named "Kingdom Hearts: Remnant". As you can see the only difference was that mine just added "Grimm", so now I just changed the title of this story to "Kingdom Hearts: Grimm Link" just to avoid any possibility of blame saying I kinda stole the name of a pre-existing fanfic. Also I did remember in the beginning of this chapter that chapters here on average won't be as long as the first chapter. Well this was about the same length lol so maybe it's just easy for me to overwrite plus I had a lot of spare time to write this chapter. Over time, I might be busier so updates won't be as fast as what I just did for Chapter 2.

So, the gang is officially students at Beacon. You got the core Team RWBY and Team JNPR, and now our brand new elite Team King. A few of you did ask from last chapter if Sora and Charlemagne are nerfed or such powerwise. My answer is no because even when Sora finally saved Kairi and disappeared from Destiny Islands, he was still able to fight Yozora with everything he has obtained. It seems like he only lost the power of waking (what Chirithy says implies such too). Charlemagne is in a similar state as Sora where they are laying low. Both of these characters are pretty powerful so I feel when you put them in the RWVY-verse, they can do what a 4-man team can do by themselves. I do have a Charlemagne in Remnant origin story in the works and I do want to implement it within Volumes 1-2. Someone did ask if this was Nasuverse Charlemagne and like I just said he's in a very similar deal with Sora, so take your guess on that :). I also don't have set pairings yet for this story because I want to take my time solidifying this adaptation.

So I'm still doing the Watchmen-style title references, but no one notified me of guessing the last chapter's title correct, but I sorta think I was being way too vague there. This chapter's title should be much easier. Normally I would provide a hint, but this one seems pretty easy. PM me your answer or do it in the reviews before I finish writing the next chapter and I will give the people who answered correctly a shout out!

Until next time!

Re-Eternal


	3. Chapter 3: Team Potential

Answer to last chapter's title: lyrics from "Face My Fears" by Utada Hikaru

* * *

**Ch.3 - Team Potential**

Rays shone through the window as it filled the room with light, but this time it was not in the auditorium. It was 7:00 in the morning as an alarm went off on a Scroll. A hand went to go pick up the Scroll to deactivate the alarm, revealing it to be Charlemagne who did so. Charlemagne set his Scroll down before stretching his arms out and yawning, rubbing his eyes a bit before looking around the room of Team King.

Due to the fact that Beacon has never admitted a team of less than four members, all the dorm rooms have the size to accommodate four students. Having half the usual members for a team means they had more space since it seemed that someone removed the two extra beds before Team King walked into their room for the first time. They didn't really bring all too many things with them to Beacon, so much of the extra space was empty. What was cool is that their dorm room was next to the rooms of Team RWBY and JNPR so that was a big plus. Everyone got acquainted with one another right after the ceremony and became sort of sibling teams. Charlemagne got up from his bed and stretched out, suddenly hearing some shuffling inside the bathroom.

"C'mon! Get this stupid thing on!" Charlemagne finally noticed Sora's vacated bed. Huh, it seems like he isn't as lazy as he thought, thinking he was going to wake up before Sora. The door finally opened and Sora walked out, wrestling with the tie that compliments the male Beacon school uniform that he already wore. He wrestled with the tie more before finally noticing Charlemagne trying to hold his laughter. "Hey, give me a break! I'm not exactly one to wear formal clothes. Islanders aren't exactly that type."

"You'll get used to putting on ties as time goes on. I'll teach you how to tie a tie after I put on my school uniform, then we can go eat breakfast." Charlemagne said as this got a thumbs up from Sora. The man grabbed his uniform and walked into the bathroom to get ready. 15 minutes later, Charlemagne walked out of the bathroom fresh with his uniform and with his tie fastened.

Sora stopped trying to tie his tie to see his teammate walk out of the bathroom, "Woah, you really rock that uniform, Charlie! It's like you're made to wear suits!"

"Appreciate it, man! When you've been growing up around the public eye for a while, it helps to know how to look presentable. I see you didn't give up with that tie, lemme help ya." Charlemagne said as he went to go through the motions of how to tie a tie. It took another 10 minutes to teach Sora, making him tie and untie the neck wear to get some repetition to ingrain the steps better. After the fourth time, Charlemagne was impressed that Sora managed to learn the motions rather quickly. They unpacked their things from their luggages and bags before finally heading out at around 8 in the morning to the dining hall.

"Based on our schedule, the first class of the day is Grimm Studies, then we have an hour of lunch, following lunch is Professor Peach's Plant Science, and after that is Combat Class. It seems like all first-years share that class at the same time. We have dinner after that to end the day." Sora was looking at the class schedule app on the Scroll. They both shared the same exact schedule so they had all of their classes together. This extended to the next day where it was Remnant History, lunch, a bit of free time, and then Combat Class before the two types of schedules alternated. Guess it's really important to have Combat Class on both days since this is an academy to train Huntsmen after all.

"I haven't seen anyone from Team RWBY or JNPR yet. They should be up by now since classes start at 9." As they continued walking, another team was walking the other direction. Both boys remembered that this was Team CRDL from the ceremony. It seemed like they were going to mind their own business but the leader took a glance at Team King.

The leader purposely moved closer to Charlemagne and bumped into him, forcing contact. "Hey! Watch where you're walking, _pal_!"

"O-oh, sorry about that." Charlemagne didn't want to be rude. He did however barely budge from that because he saw the big man intentionally try to make contact. "Cardin Winchester, right?"

The rest of Team CRDL tried to size up before Cardin spoke, "And you are Team King, huh? For a supposed 'elite team', you shrimps both don't look like you can't even play the part. Bet Ozpin had to put you guys as an extra team since you two can't fit into any teams by yourselves." This got Charlemagne to narrow his eyes and Sora to clench a fist.

"And what makes you think you can say that?" Sora confronted Cardin, not liking bullies at the slightest.

Cardin gave Sora a nonchalant look before looking back at Charlemagne, who he had his full attention on. "Elite team? Did your lil' Daddy pay Ozpin to give you that title? I know about you Magnuses up there in Atlas, especially that dad of yours. Advocating for all that equality, especially for the Faunus? He's just like a silly pope who's working for the White Fang. It's good to see his kid attend this place… because I get to pummel the son of a supporter of those animals."

This got Sora riled up as he was about to step in further until he was stopped by Charlemagne, who continued to stare Cardin down. Although Charlemagne had a slight frown etched on his, Cardin's words didn't seem like they fazed the Magnus heir at all. This got Sora to notice Charlemagne's demeanor. For so many offensive comments, the carefree and lively Charlemagne had a personality of a steel wall; sturdy and still being able to deflect light. This was why Charlemagne's response was so unexpected for everyone:

"Yeah, I'm the son of 'Duke Magnus'. If you ask me, I'm not concerned about my title at the moment and would wish to be around all of you like a fellow student. So I hope we get to know more about each other this year!" Charlemagne happily said as he extended a hand for a handshake.

Team CRDL and Sora were all stunned. He really just took all the slander Cardin said to him and gave the man a courteous response. It agitated Cardin as he wasn't able to get under Charlemagne's skin at all. That showed when the bigger man swatted Charlemagne's hand away.

"Hmph! Don't forget about this, you'll have what's coming to you soon." Cardin threatened as he and his team continued on their way to wherever they were going.

Team King continued to look at their backs before Charlemagne sighed and continued walking. Sora, worried about Charlemagne, decided to check up on his teammate.

"Are you ok after all of what Cardin said?"

"It's just the first day, so I gave him a chance. Another encounter with him like this and I will most likely not be as friendly as just then."

They finally made it to the dining hall and went to the line to get food. After that, they sat down at a random table before eating. Sora took a bite out of his toast before asking Charlemagne something he had in his mind.

"So I remember Blake mentioning a bit about your family, and then Cardin also did so as well. I'm curious, what does your family do, or rather just your dad specifically?"

Charlemagne tapped the opposite side of the fork on his chin as he thought out a response, "Have you ever heard about or read _The Tale of the Two Brothers?_ The tale about the two creation gods of Remnant; the elder god of light and creation and the younger god of darkness and destruction?"

"I might've read that once in a library." During his time before Beacon, Sora did manage to come across this book along with a few other tales. Reading those tales, Sora can assume that all of these actually happened to some extent. He was brought here by the God of Light after all. It just cemented Sora's belief that all fairy tales had a good amount of possibility that the events actually occurred, being very familiar with Kingdom Hearts, the division and worlds, as well as the light in the hearts of children.

"Well that story plays a good part in what my dad stands for," Charlemagne continued his explanation, "he stands as a sort of an 'advocate' for the Light God's will. He's always been a rather fervent lover of that tale, so it wasn't too outside the realm of possibility for him to begin to rally something of a religious following that strives to bring the salvation of Remnant by unifying everyone to eliminate the Grimm. It's been 5 years since my old man started this movement, but it wasn't until 3 years ago that we were given a formal name: 'The Oracles of the Elder.' Ever since, the movement has attracted some global attention and we have some followers from all over, especially the Faunus. We do have our fair share of critics unfortunately with Faunus-haters like Cardin, radical Faunus from the new White Fang, and especially the Schnee Dust Corporation back at Atlas." Charlemagne twirled his fork as he took a sausage and bit into it.

"The company that Weiss' dad is the owner of? Wouldn't that cause some tension between you and Weiss?" Sora asked with some concern.

"It's just a lot more with Jacques Schnee. From the very few times I had the chance to talk to Weiss before this year, she seemed rather neutral but I feel she has a bit of influence from her dad. I've mentioned that our family has been invited to a couple of the Schnee parties. Those parties were for Jacques to get to know my dad, but he also slipped in words of criticism. We all played the amicable card, but we all knew his true intent; just as we knew of his company's harsh treatment of Faunus workers. Definitely not cool at all..."

"Huh…"

They left that topic off on that note as they continued eating and talking about other things. There was 15 minutes left before class started as they made their way to exit the dining hall. In the corner of their peripheral vision, a bunny Faunus was walking towards the cafeteria kitchen to return the tray. She was unaware of the puddle of milk that was spilt on the floor as her heel slipped on the wet substance and she lost her balance. The boys were quick to react and were about to catch her fall, but with surprising fluidity she converted the backwards fall into a flip. After recovering, she caught the tray and used the tray to catch all the dishware from falling on the floor. She had a sigh of relief before finally noticing her almost-good-samaritans staring at her slack-jawed.

"I-I appreciate you two trying to help…" she shyly said before taking more time to look at them. "Hey aren't you two the members of Team King? And you seem familiar." She said that more to Charlemagne.

"We've been the talk of the school I can tell. I'm Sora! And this is Charlemagne, but call him Charlie!"

"Pleased to meet you two, I'm Velvet. Are you Charlemagne Magnus?"

"I take it you know about my dad's work?" Charlemagne guessed as the person they were talking to was a Faunus.

Velvet became a bit more excited. "More than that! When your father took his first trip to Vale, my father got the chance to meet him. What your father said to mine gave him the courage to finally open up his business. Ever since, our family has been supporters of The Oracles of the Elder. It's such an honor for me to meet his son!"

"I appreciate your praise, Velvet! Just while we are here, treat me like anyone else. It's quite embarrassing being lauded all the time, but I appreciate it nonetheless!"

The bunny Faunus seemed to understand that. "If you say that, then I'll respect that choice. Anyways, it was nice meeting you, Charlie and Sora!" Velvet then went back to where she wanted to go.

Sora whistled, "Now I'm starting to see the celebrity in you!"

Deciding to poke a little fun at Sora, Charlemagne retaliated saying, "The islander starting to feel a bit left out?"

Sora laughed it off. "Nah. As long as I see that my friends are happy, I'm happy."

"And that's something we both share." Charlemagne happily shared as they made their way to their first class, anticipating the things they will learn.

* * *

They didn't anticipate the sheer boredom of the class itself though. Team King got to class 5 minutes before it started and got to see a very winded Team RWBY and JNPR burst through the door within the last 30 seconds before class. Both teams sat next to each other in the front row as they proceeded to endure the next couple hours of lecture. Professor Port started out with an introductory speech about the role of Huntsmen in today's society. What followed was an eternity of Port talking about personal stories about his battle with Grimm. There were drawings of Grimm on the board with notes written about each Grimm as well as Port occasionally shedding information about the ways he killed Grimm, but that was decidedly up to the students' level of awareness and finding the useful substance within Port's seemingly useless ramble.

"Some of these stories seem cool, but these are all so drawn ouuttt…" Charlemagne muttered to himself as Sora was in a state of half-consciousness, half-sleep. Out of the members of Team RWBY and JNPR, it seemed only Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha were remotely getting the most out of the lecture. Everyone else was slacking a bit, the two sisters especially weren't fairing that well. The information seemed to be going into one ear and out the other with Yang while Ruby had a more erratic cycle than Sora. Within the last half of class, Ruby began to doodle on her notes, her giggling catching the attention of her friends. She showed them a drawing of a circular Professor Port with the caption "Professor Poop." This got suppressed laughter from Yang, Sora, and Charlemagne. However, Weiss became increasingly irate with how immature Ruby kept acting as the class went on and it wasn't until Port asked a question when she stopped focusing on Ruby.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the _embodiment_ of these traits?"

With an abrupt rise, Weiss called attention to herself. "I do, sir!"

Port raised an eyebrow, "Well, then, let's find out! Come down and face your opponent!" as he uncovered a cage that was dark in the inside, yet red menacing eyes peered out. Weiss walked out of the classroom for a moment to change into her gear before stepping into the front of the class, Myrtenaster at the ready. On the sidelines, her friends cheered her on.

"Good luck!" Sora and Charlemagne said.

"Goooo, Weiss!" Yang pumped a fist into the air.

"Fight well!" Blake said while waving a small flag with "Team RWBY" on it.

"Yeah, represent Teeeam RWBY!" Ruby finally cheered.

Hearing Ruby got a reaction from Weiss. "Ruby! I'm trying to focus here!"

"Oh… um, sorry…" Ruby lightly responded. Weiss' response got everyone to frown.

Port gave a countdown for Weiss before cutting the lock with his axe. The cage door fell as it revealed a Boarbatusk that wasted no time charging at Weiss. Predicting the straight beeline the Grimm took, Weiss deftly swiped at the Grimm and side-stepped to avoid the charge. The Grimm slowly studied her before making another charge.

"You got this, Weiss!" Charlemagne encouraged.

Weiss tried to go for a straight thrust at the head of the Boarbatusk, but the Grimm managed to get her weapon trapped into its tusks. After a little struggle, the Boarbatusk managed to disarm Weiss and throw Myrtenaster away and knock Weiss the opposite direction.

"O-ho-ho! Now what will you do without a weapon?"

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Sora exclaimed.

Rolling away from another charge, Weiss sprinted towards her weapon as she picked it up and got into a stance.

Ruby decided to speak again by giving her teammate some advice, "Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-"

"Quit telling me what to do!" Weiss berated Ruby.

_"What's been the deal with her? She's specifically been yelling at Ruby. Wait. Now that I think about it, I could've sworn that Weiss seemed upset about something during the ceremony."_ Sora thought.

Meanwhile, the Boarbatusk leaps into the air and rolls into a ball, spinning rapidly in the air and landing on the ground, consistently gaining speed until it launches itself at Weiss. It comes closer and closer, but Weiss activates one of her Glyphs and blocks the roll, leaping up into the now-black snowflake symbol and turning it blue again so she can drive the blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squeals and falls silent while Weiss gasps in relief.

"Bravo! We've got ourselves a true Huntress in the making! Unfortunately, that is all the time we have for this class. Be sure to do the assigned reading… and stay vigilant. Class dismissed!" Port concluded as the class began to leave. Weiss gave Ruby a quick glare before storming out of the class, the younger girl soon left to go after her.

"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asked with concern. Sora and Charlemagne turned to Jaune with the same amount of concern.

"Weiss was targeting her anger solely on Ruby. That was something that I found really uncalled for! I've never seen her act remotely like that before Beacon!" Charlemagne said.

Sora thought a bit more before coming up with his conclusion, "Well I remember seeing Weiss look upset after Ruby was named the leader. I think she's jealous that Ruby was chosen to be leader and not her." Jaune was confused at that notion, but Charlemagne picked up on what Sora was saying.

"I think I understand what Weiss is thinking right now. Later today, I will go have a chat with Weiss since I feel I know her circumstances well enough." Charlemagne told the two others.

"As for me, I'll go talk to Ruby right now!" Sora said, getting a nod from Charlemagne and Jaune as the spiky-haired student ran towards the direction Ruby left.

* * *

_"Where did you go, Ruby?"_ Sora searched around the halls for the caped leader. It was then when Sora heard the voices of Weiss and Ruby that he finally tracked down their location. What made him interested as he got closer was that Ozpin himself was hidden around the corner, seemingly listening to the exchange. The Headmaster gave Sora no words but a small smirk as they both listened to the conversation.

"Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team."

"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better."

Those words stung so hard that Sora had to physically restrain himself from coming to Ruby's defense since that would've made the situation a lot nastier. He also trusted Charlemagne that he will get through Weiss.

"Ozpin made a mistake." Weiss finally stated as Ozpin and Sora heard her footsteps become more silent. The two held their ground for a second before hearing Ruby coming towards their direction.

"I think it would be better for a fellow student to talk to her." Ozpin gave a wink as he left without letting Sora answer. Sora had a slightly exasperated look because Ozpin's help would've been very beneficial. Though he didn't even expect Ozpin to be present, so it was back to his original plan. As Ruby was about to turn the corner, Sora made his presence known by beating her to it and surprising the younger girl.

"S-S-Sora?! Didn't think I'd see you right now!" Ruby tried to put on a happy face, but it was extremely strained. He appreciated that Ruby tried to be optimistic, but he had to go straight into the matter.

"I heard the tail-end of that conversation, Ruby. And it seems that my guess was correct."

Ruby looked down and almost on the verge of tears. "Tell me, Sora, did Ozpin make a mistake? Am I not deserving of the leader role?"

Sora took a long contemplative look at Ruby. It was truly sad to see her in this state, having her own teammate doubt her abilities all on the basis of seniority and status. He looked back on all the previous adventures he had. Unless forced apart, he was practically inseparable with Donald and Goofy through it all even when his relationship with Donald was extremely rocky at the beginning. Their time at Deep Jungle was about coming to terms about their pride, both of them deciding who will take lead. Obviously their relationship mended and strengthened afterwards. Although Donald still had much of his pride, he steadily began allowing Sora to take lead the more worlds they went through. If Sora had to take a guess on why that was such, it must have been because Sora finally proved to everyone that he had obtained the skills needed to lead. He did not learn those skills by himself though…

Finally deciding on what he wanted to say, Sora put a hand on Ruby's shoulder to get her attention. "It's only been one day, Ruby. We haven't even seen your true potential yet. Why attend a school as a student if you already know all the answers?"

This still didn't make Ruby exactly light up, which Sora expected anyways. "Look, qualities of a good leader do not come immediately. No one is really born with those qualities. Back on my island, I was a part of a little team of our own. We were in charge of fighting off the smaller Grimm since the adults didn't want us to fight the bigger ones. I had a really rocky start with one teammate. Our goals differed, but we both wanted the leader spot and because of that, we constantly fought. But as time went on, we shared experiences that made us learn more about one another and times when we have to pick each other up."

"Did you guys eventually make up?" Ruby asked.

"We definitely made up, and he became one of my best friends. I didn't think any less of him, but I think he silently allowed me to become the more leading figure. Here's the thing, there are things that are left for you to learn. You don't learn them alone, though. When the going goes rough for a leader, you can count on your teammates to support you. That's what teammates are for: covering for you at your most vulnerable moments and providing a constant learning experience. Besides, that fight with the Mishipeshu was a good start for you. The plan you came up with was perfect!"

"I, I appreciate that, Sora. What is there that I need to know in order to become a good leader?"

Sora gave Ruby a smirk, "That's for you to learn. All teams are different, so there isn't one set way to become a good leader. I trust that you will learn by the end of the first-year… and I believe Weiss will come to understand too. Now, I think you should think about what I said for a bit."

"T-thanks for all of this, Sora. Thanks for sharing your story, I'm starting to see where you're coming from now." Ruby began to cheer up as she put on a natural smile.

"That's the Ruby I know!" Sora laughed.

"Well anyways, I better get going. Thanks again, Sora!"

"Don't sweat it!"

Ruby turned to leave while Sora stood there for a moment, thinking about Charlemagne and what he might say. "Now it's up to Charlie to turn Weiss the correct direction."

* * *

After all of their classes ended for the day, Weiss needed somewhere to calm her mind. She was still hung up over what happened earlier. All of that training she has gone through, not only for combat but also for etiquette should have been enough for Ozpin to deem her the leader. It also bugged her to no end that the team was named "RWBY", so this felt like a double taunt. She soon reached her destination: one of the balconies. The sunset view from this place was very beautiful as Beacon's main tower perfectly complemented the orange hue of the sky. She felt another presence on the balcony, it was one Charlemagne Magnus. It seemed like he was completely glued to the sunset, which she can't blame him for. Weiss, however, didn't want to be in the company of anyone right now and made to leave until Charlemagne suddenly said something.

"Weiss," Charlemagne turned towards the heiress, "we need to chat a little."

"Not at the moment, Charlemagne. I just want some alone time right now." Weiss responded, but she faltered when she noticed the look that Charlemagne gave her. It was a piercing gaze that looked into her soul, eyes that said _"We're having this conversation right now."_

Hesitantly, Weiss walked up to Charlemagne before also leaning on the railing. "What is it you want?"

"You know why the sun sets red?"

She was confused where he was going with this, but she didn't want to sour this conversation. "Why does the sun set red?"

"You see, light is made up of many colors. And out of all of these colors, red is the one that travels the furthest." Charlemagne told her.

"I seriously hope you have something else to tell me other than the sun." Weiss said impatiently.

"Yes, yes I do. The reason why I'm saying this is to tell you that it's only been one day. You haven't seen Ruby–the red light-–go far enough yet, Weiss."

"And what? You're here to tell me that someone who acts like such a little kid can be a good leader to a team?" Weiss put her hands on her hips.

"Yes, and I'm here to tell you that Ruby's appointment as a leader is not a mistake. She is rightfully the leader of Team RWBY, you are not. You do not have all of the good qualities of such."

"Excuse me?! I have spent so much time with some of the world's best teachers before attending this academy! My qualifications far surpass Ruby's!" Weiss angrily lashed out.

Charlemagne narrowed his eyes, speaking ever so calmly. "Did your teachers teach you to act like a petty princess?"

"H-How dare you!" Weiss was practically seething right now. Ice has melted and has become boiling water. "I thought that you of all people would understand my perspective, our families are both prolific as two of the most well-known families Atlas has to offer!"

"And that is precisely what I'm getting at. Because our families are so renowned, we've been basking in the praises of others and have been growing up getting _exactly_ what we wanted."

"That's not even remotely true!" Weiss tried defending herself, but Charlemagne continued to look at her with a powerful stare. He didn't seem to budge at all. She couldn't keep up her wall long enough as she slowly relented. "...Well, not _entirely_ true."

Starting to crack that ice fortress of a wall, Charlemagne closed his eyes as he released a big sigh. "So tell me Weiss, would someone as esteemed as Ozpin grant you the title of team leader if you went up to them like how you did to me?" Charlemagne did not need a verbal answer, Weiss' face said enough. "I've been in a non-leading position before where I was objectively better at everything that you bring to the battlefield than my leader. Instead of feeling entitled to a leading role, I gave him a chance lead. In moments where he slacked, I gave him my support. And though all the things we've been through, he proved to be an awesome leader! Weiss, I feel at times that it is much cooler being a leader's right-hand person. Don't lament over something you haven't obtained, instead look forward to what you'll do. In a way, don't prove to yourself that you can be a better leader, but prove to yourself that you can be a better _person_."

Weiss wore a surprised look on her face. Even back to their first encounters in Atlas, she always thought of Charlemagne to be simple-minded. She doesn't mean it in an offensive way, but she just didn't expect him to have so much wisdom under his belt. Honestly she would've expected his father to say something like this, not him.

"I didn't think you'd have this much wisdom behind your words. It seems like I have more to learn about you, but those were… enlightening words I guess." Weiss finally said, managing to calm down. "A thank you should be in order then. Thank you, Charlemagne,"

"Ahh just call me Charlie, Weiss. You are a friend after all!" Charlemagne said while motioning for a fistbump. The girl paused since she never really did a fistbump with anyone, but she complied by returning it.

"If you insist, Charlie." Weiss corrected herself with a small smile. She turned and walked away, most likely finding Ruby. Charlemagne turned to see the sun already set as it transitioned into the evening. A night sky like this definitely reminded him of that night.

A night sky that shone the ever-radiance of a moonlit world.

* * *

**The next day…**

After an extremely sped-up lecture by Doctor Oobleck in Remnant History, Teams RWBY, JNPR, and King all sat with each other in the dining hall for lunch. Their time during the Initiation really was an overall good first impression of each other. No one really had any beef with one another and that included Ruby and Weiss in which the effects of yesterday seem like they never existed. This was much to the relief of everyone, especially Sora and Charlemagne who both were thankful that they each fulfilled their parts. Everyone seemed to be in bright spirits as various sorts of conversations were held. A few people did notice that Jaune, in particular, began to look like something was on his mind as he started to space out more and pick on his food.

His teammate was the first one to call him out on this. "Is something the matter, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

Everyone turned to Jaune, expecting an answer. Jaune then noticed how obvious he's been acting. He tried to play it off like it was no big deal.

"Oh! It's nothing!"

"I've seen monks that lie better than you. There's something on your mind." Ren said.

Ruby was one that was mostly on the nose on the reason, "Is it because you aren't satisfied with your performance during yesterday's Combat class?" And that answer was confirmed when Jaune didn't feel the need to reject that. They were all there during class and had a good idea why. Although the first Combat class had Professor Goodwitch mostly going through the introductions of the course, they still had time for a couple matches. They were randomly sorted and the last match was Jaune vs Cardin. Although Cardin was very average in skill compared to the entire class, his durability was probably one of the highest. This wasn't in the favor of Jaune as his skills were clumsy at best in a rather one-sided battle. Jaune got one hit in because Cardin allowed him to and the fight ended with Cardin's nearly full green Aura bar versus Jaune's red bar.

Speaking of Aura bars, Sora was supernaturally durable to the point where even severe cuts and even some stabs wouldn't penetrate his skin. He didn't believe much on Remnant would be able to do such (probably thanks to magic?) unless he allowed himself to get beaten half-to-death. As such, he technically doesn't have Aura and the Aura meter will appear empty if he ever gets measured. This didn't mean he didn't have a contingency explanation. While testing the Aura reader on the Scroll, he found out energy from Flowmotion was a compatible substitute. What Sora thought out was every time before getting his Aura levels read, he will allocate a set amount of Flowmotion energy to appear as his Aura levels. His Flowmotion levels do get lower as he gets damaged.

Back to Jaune's dilemma, he didn't feel the need to hide it any longer since they all knew about what happened. Furthermore, Jaune thinks he should tell them about his situation at Beacon, specifically how he got in.

"Guys… I feel like I need to tell you guys something." Jaune warily spoke. They stayed silent to let him continue. "I...I… didn't really get into Beacon legitimately."

It was such a surprising thing to say that even Blake put her book down to ask Jaune to reiterate what he said, "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not supposed to be here! I-I forged my documents to make them look good and I got in! There's a reason why I fought like that, but my dream is to be a Huntsman and I left home for that!" Jaune let it all out before gasping for air. He looked around to see all of his friends shocked by the sudden revelation. Feeling more hopeless with his situation, he slumped where he sat. "Just think whatever you will of me…"

"And you got appointed as leader, that's something even I didn't get to have." Yang was the first to say anything.

"Huh?"

Weiss said her piece before Jaune could continue, "Even if what you did was highly illegal, there must be a reason why Ozpin let you in."

Charlemagne elaborated on Weiss statement, "I heard that Ozpin actually goes through each application himself and thoroughly researches each candidate. He must've already known your applications were false yet he still waved you in. If you ask me, Ozpin might see something in you that not many others can!"

"But how can I be a leader if I can't even be a good fighter?" Jaune asked when Nora pointed a finger straight to his face.

"Hey! It was youuu who gave us the timing to beat that Death Stalker! You also can't ignore the fact that you defended those two in separate times during our fight with that big kitty!" Nora told Jaune as she pointed at both Weiss and Charlemagne.

"I feel like you should say what you said to me, Sora." Ruby told Sora, which the boy was reminded of.

"Oh, yeah! Jaune, I told Ruby yesterday that teammates always have the back of their leader. The leader cannot do everything alone, thus why teammates exist. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora are your safety net and your teaching aids. It's only the second day now, so don't expect to be a great leader immediately. I'm sure you will get the hang of it soon!"

The NPR of JNPR all nodded their heads before the P suggested something, "Hey, maybe I can tutor you in combat during spare times. If we are going to try the best we can, then let's get all of us prepared! We both use sword and shield, so I can give you tips that will help you over the long run."

Sora raised his hand, "Oh! I can help too! You guys have mainly seen me with swordplay and my guns, but I have also handled shields before. How about it, Jaune?"

"Don't count me out! Jaune, do you want some awesome sword techniques? I'll help you with that!" Charlemagne cut in.

"See, Jaune? Not only do you have us as teammates, but you have friends who are willing to help you." Pyrrha said as she put a hand on his shoulder.

Jaune silently looked around to see everyone giving him a range of small smiles to big grins. Or if in the case of Weiss and Blake: their attention.

"Guys… thank you. This means a lot." Jaune looked so relieved, seemingly a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders. "Maybe then can I stand a chance against Cardin."

"Yeah! Break his legs!"

"No, Nora." Ren said calmly.

"Though that will teach him a lesson, especially with how he acted in Remnant History class yesterday." Sora said as he tightened his fists.

Not everyone had the same time for the class, so only Team King, the JP of JNPR, and WB of RWBY knew what exactly went on. They were in the middle of covering the Faunus Rights Revolution and more specifically into the Battle of Fort Castle. Cardin, being behind a sleeping Jaune, made a paper football and attempted to flick it on the back of Jaune's head. His efforts were wasted when Sora caught the football and without looking, flicked it back at Cardin. The football hit his forehead as he made a sound, putting attention on himself as Oobleck asked him about General Lagune's critical error during the battle. What the big man said was extremely offensive, saying it was easier to train an animal than a soldier. This obviously made almost everyone upset, especially Velvet who Charlemagne had to comfort. Pyrrha corrected Cardin and Blake called him out on his lack of attention, which resulted in Oobleck calling Cardin after class for additional reading.

"Man, what a jerk!" Yang exclaimed as she slammed the table. "I hope to be pitted against him next in Combat class. These fists will pummel his ass!"

"For once, I might agree with Yang." Blake actually had some emotion in her voice when she said that.

"I've tried to give that man a chance, but he's making it hard for me to uphold any friendliness towards him." Charlemagne tiredly said, being one of the first people in the group to have an encounter with him. "I think he's trying to make a point that what my family stands for is pitiful."

Blake spoke again, "People like Cardin won't understand. Their exaggerated self-righteous beliefs prevent them from seeing the bigger picture."

"Woah, Blake, you've been willing to talk about this issue in particular a lot more than other topics!" Yang was surprised how vocal Blake was.

"With how he treated the situation, how can someone not feel frustrated?" Pyrrha chimed in.

Sora drank the last of his water before sharing his thoughts, "Someone should really set him straigh–"

"Ow! That hurts! Please… stop…"

"I told you these were real!"

"What a freak!"

All three teams looked at the direction of those voices, and it infuriated all of them. Velvet was being bullied by Team CRDL. Specifically, Cardin was tugging on Velvet's rabbit ears. Everyone around them was either staring uncomfortably or just trying to ignore it. Meanwhile, the aura around Team RWBY, JNPR, and King was heavy.

"_What_ does he think he's doing? Rabbit ears are extremely sensitive! He can cause serious injury!" Blake almost screamed as her eyes almost appeared as slits

"People like him make me sick." Ren said coldly.

"Break his legs?" Nora asked.

"Maybe…"

But before anyone could really say more, Charlemagne abruptly got up from his seat and went towards the direction of Team CRDL and Velvet.

"Went" as in he damn near flew towards them. Charlemagne seemingly went at the speed Weiss did when she saved Ruby from the Death Stalker stinger, except he was unaided by anything; just pure speed. It took everyone in the dining hall a second to process how Charlemagne just appeared between Cardin and Velvet, gripping on Cardin's wrist.

"Charlie?!" A surprised Velvet said.

"What do you think you are doing, **Cardin**?" Charlemagne uttered as a shadow covered his eyes.

"Huh? So the little pampered princess has a soft spot for the animal? I saw you two cozying up with one another during class. Are you into bestiality or something?" Cardin asked as his team started laughing.

Charlemagne didn't respond, so this made Cardin think he got to him. That didn't last long when he felt an immense pressure on his wrist. He grunted in pain when he realized Charlemagne had a staggering vice grip on his wrist. Cardin was forced to let go of Velvet as he struggled to pull his arm back towards him.

"Cardin? You good?"

"Arr-Argh-ughhh!"

Before everyone thought that Charlemagne was going to break his wrist right then and there, Charlemagne forcefully pushed Cardin back a few paces, letting go of his wrist. The rest of Team CRDL rushed to Cardin to check up on him as he massaged his wrist. After nothing serious appeared, Cardin looked up at Charlemagne.

"You-you prick! You wanna piece of me, princess?!"

Before Team CRDL had the chance to rush Charlemagne, he held his right arm up and summoned his mace. With a level of control and force, we swiped it down and caused enough wind to quickly make the team back off.

"Team CRDL," Charlemagne said with such authority that everyone could've sworn he was a king, "your antics of belittling and bigotry stop here! Beacon does not accept such behavior from the future saviors of Remnant. We must learn to feel compassion and fairness to those we strive to protect: men, women, children, Faunus. I swear on my soul that we will receive the salvation that we all deserve, but the types of actions your team has done are the types of actions that hinder our future! To settle this here would be uncivilized, so I call for your team to face me in Combat Class. All of you… fighting just me!"

Various murmurs circulated the dining hall. A lot of them are questioning if Charlemagne can face all four of the members of CRDL by himself. Charlemagne's friends all sat there, shell-shocked beyond belief that their normally chill friend was carrying himself like a monarch.

"Team CRDL, do we have an accord?"

Cardin glared at Charlemagne for a few seconds before having a shit-eating grin, "Yes, I would love to run your face over. We are definitely gonna embarrass you in front of everyone and make you eat those words. 'Till then, think about how you'll regret this." Team CRDL then marched out of the dining hall. Charlemagne desummoned his mace before turning to Velvet, kneeling to pick her up.

"Are you ok?" Charlemagne asked softly.

"I appreciate you sticking up for me, Charlie." Velvet said with tears welling up.

"I know what you're capable of, yet why didn't you do more to defend yourself?"

"It's just… I didn't want to make a big deal about it."

Charlemagne didn't like that answer. "Your shyness should not stop you from letting them do whatever they want with you. I'm going to set them straight, for you and all the Faunus as well as everyone who felt injustice." He said that as he headed back to his friends. Nora was the first to say something.

"Who are you and what did you do to Charlie? I thought you were gonna break his wrist, though it wasn't the legs but still you almost broke something!"

Weiss spoke her opinion, "Now this isn't something you can back out of, can you? You declared war on their team."

"You sure you don't want help from Sora?" Ruby asked, worried about Charlemagne's mindset right now. But the worrying was wiped clean by Sora.

"Nah, I think Charlie will do fine. He's doing what everyone wants to do to Team CRDL."

"He beat me to it, that's for sure." Pyrrha jokingly added.

"Don't worry about me, worry about them!" Charlemagne pointed a thumb to where CRDL left. The group had a laugh before the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

"So Charlie, there's still free time before Combat class, are you going to spend that time planning on what to do?" Jaune asked.

Charlemagne took a second to think, "Something bold, something that sends a message… I got it." He finished with a devilish smirk.

He was going to give the audience something awesome to watch.

* * *

So here's your usual "Team CRDL will regret their actions" trope in many stories and this is no different. I did however want to establish a more in-depth and personal conflict rather than just Cardin being a dick to people and Faunus because the series just needs him to be a dick. Thus, I thought that doing an arc centered around Charlemagne and his stance on the world being challenged by opposition seemed appropriate to be placed here. I'd like to give the deuteragonist some development by not only establishing his mental and emotional range, but also his and his family's role in the world. Sora is a very rounded character already and will still take the majority of the main perspective.

I will start trying to differentiate more from the base RWBY timeline because having Sora and the Magnus family being included into this world will cause a butterfly effect. So this won't be like the case in certain worlds in Kingdom Hearts where the endings are ultimately very similar or the same as the movies. It's not to say that everything that happens in the original RWBY story will be omitted, but overall the effects of including Sora and Charlemagne into the mix should be felt. Jaune's whole deal about being blackmailed by Cardin and his distancing from JNPR was replaced by Charlemagne's current arc. I felt that since Jaune has already established a good relationship with the members of Team King, having them in the mix along with Team RWBY and JNPR will make it easier to convince Jaune that it's ok being trained and helped by others.

I've actually been surprised with how fast I uploaded these 3 chapters already. If you compare this to Volume 1, I have approximately covered more than half of that volume. The episodes overall were a lot shorter so I understand how Volume 1 went by fast. I might add one or two more arcs to Volume 1 just to add more content. In terms of Volume 2, that's when I plan on implementing a Charlemagne on Remnant origin story. But for the next chapter, Charlemagne will face all of Team CRDL himself.

Until next time!

Re-Eternal


	4. Chapter 4: Encelevenemus

Last chapter's title: one of the tracks from Haikyuu!

* * *

**Ch.4 - Encelevenemus**

"You're gonna skip our class just to watch that fight?"

"Of course! You wanna miss a member of Team King taking on an entire team? Besides, it's only the second day of school there ain't much material covered."

"I guess…"

That was one of the many conversations that circulated the student body after lunch. Those who were in the dining hall during the confrontation couldn't keep it to themselves as it became the talk of the school. There was no doubt the professors heard about it too. Oobleck was especially very aware of this, almost like he was expecting something like this to happen. It was needless to say that everyone was anticipating the upcoming Combat class, including Charlemagne and the entirety of Team CRDL.

So it came to no surprise that the classroom that held the class was a lot fuller than usual.

"I'm starting to think that either half the class wasn't here yesterday or our Combat class now includes the older students." Jaune said as he was awed by the amount of people that showed up.

"The first day was mandatory, so everyone was to attend class." Weiss responded.

"Besides, who doesn't wanna watch this match after what happened during lunch? I'm so excited! I hope Charlie wipes them clean off the arena!" Yang gripped the railing in anticipation.

Charlemagne, who was sitting next to Yang, just smiled.

"Charlie, you didn't use the break to warm-up and plan. You must be absolutely confident in your abilities, am I right?" Pyrrha asked.

The man just smiled and gave an ok hand sign, "Crystal."

"He might've told me some hint of what he's gonna do." The group looked at Sora being a bit smug along with his teammate. "I think he's gonna give Team CRDL a fight they'll never forget."

"Whatever you do, show 'em who's boss!" Yang exclaimed along with a cheering Ruby and Nora.

"I think a little humiliation is in order." A small smirk from Blake was given to Charlemagne. This sentiment was shared by Weiss and Ren though they didn't say it out loud.

Charlemagne gave them a thumbs up, "Oh just you guys wait." He turned his attention to where Team CRDL was sitting. All the members were glaring at him with daggers, trying to size him up. Unfazed by their attempt, Charlemagne held up a peace hand sign which further infuriated Cardin.

The sound of heels echoed through the classroom. Glynda walked towards her podium and set down her Scroll pad before scanning the classroom. She was going to question the sudden influx of students later but she had to start the class now.

"Ahem. Today is the second day of class. We have gone over the course introductions for this class that covered the basic structure of what this course will cover as well as the fundamental sparring rules that must be followed. There will be times when we fight other Huntsmen and not Grimm, so it is best to get this sort of experience as first-years. I have randomly assigned a couple fights yesterday to let you all see the typical matches in this class. But from here on out, I will allow requests by students on who they want to spar against before I go to random selection. With that said, who wants to go first?"

The leader of Team CRDL raised his hand and immediately stood up, "I do, Professor."

"Mr. Winchester, so insistent to duel after you were assigned yesterday. Who do you want to spar with?"

Cardin pointed his finger towards Charlemagne, "Him…", then proceeded to spread his arms out to gesture his team,"...versus us."

The whole class started to get antsy and murmurs were heard all around. Glynda narrowed her eyes. "Now, Mr. Winchester, I have not made any arrangements for team battles this week, much less this type of request, so I'm afraid that—"

"Professor Goodwitch!" She noticed Charlemagne call her name as he stood up with a stern expression. "I'll do it." There was a staring contest between the student and professor. Glynda studied his expression and found nothing but determination and something to prove. She was no stranger to what he and Team CRDL were involved in earlier and was relieved that they didn't escalate the situation and decided to bring the fighting here. A good amount of the student-requested fights were grudge matches afterall. Glynda also wasn't going to lie, she was curious about Charlemagne's abilities after her talk with Ozpin. This was a chance to see what the boy was capable of.

"Very well. Charlemagne Magnus and Team CRDL, step down and get your weapons. After both parties are ready, we will commence the match." Glynda announced as she started to get the Scroll ready.

Both parties went to go collect their gear from the locker room, Charlemagne getting words of encouragement on his way. While the class was waiting for them to return, Sora saw a team they weren't familiar with walk up to them, interestingly with Velvet.

The girl with shades and a beret put a hand on her hip and spoke, "Hey, are you Charlie's teammate?"

"Oh, yes I am. I see you are teammates with Velvet?" Sora replied.

"Coco Adel, leader of Team CFVY. It's a pleasure to meet you and I would like to thank you two boys for being so kind to my Velvet." Coco said as she ruffled Velvet's head a bit.

"Coco! Watch the ears, they are still a bit sore."

"Ah right. That Team CRDL… I wish I could give them a good ol' beating myself as a senior."

Sora tilted his head, "Senior? Are you older than us?"

The very tan man of the team with copper hair answered his question. "We are second-years. I'm Fox, and the big man here is Yatsuhashi." Fox gestured towards the very big man, who just silently nodded in response.

"I see, so like the extra people here you just skipped class to see this match, huh?" Sora asked.

Velvet laughed sheepishly, "Coco dragged us all here. She was very insistent on watching Charlie fight off against CRDL. I had a lot of faith in him so I was fine not watching, but we're here now."

"C'mon Vel, you don't want to see your knight in shining armor in action?" Coco teased and Velvet got flustered. This got a laugh from Sora and Coco.

Sora then gestured at the empty seats next to him, "So you guys can sit with us to watch the match."

Coco lowered her shades before smiling, "It would be our pleasure, Sora." Team CFVY took their seats next to Sora. A minute passed with some more small talk before footsteps were heard on the arena floor. Team CRDL made their appearance, walking in with the arrogant flair that matched the cocky looks on their faces. Much of the looks they received by the crowd weren't exactly warm and welcoming, especially from Sora, Team CFVY, RWBY, and JNPR. Nevertheless, they had the perception that they will utterly dominate the fight. It wasn't much later that Charlemagne walked from the opposite end of the arena, Joyeuse in the sheathe. He wore a placid expression, seemingly not deterred by anything. He looked at where his friends were sitting. The cheers that he got were comforting.

"You got this, Charlie!" Sora, Ruby, and Yang yelled.

"Good luck!" Blake and Velvet said.

"BREAK THEIR LEGS!" Nora bellowed.

That statement especially was comforting.

Glynda got everyone's attention, "Ahem. So the same rules apply. Each fighter has their own Aura bars displayed on the screen here to account for their remaining Aura. Anything is permitted as long as it is not on a fighter who had their Aura broken already. Here is the Aura of each participant." The overhead display displayed five bars. Four green bars occupied the left side for Team CRDL with their faces associated to one bar, on the right was just Charlemagne's bar. "Are all fighters ready?" Both parties gave the professor a nod.

"Then, let the match begin!" The bell rang, signalling the start of the match.

Team CRDL and Charlemagne stayed where they were for a few seconds before Cardin decided to initiate with a taunt, "Hey, you now chicken to approach us?"

Charlemagne only stared on for a bit before smiling, "I'd rather like the company of you four here because I'm going to make things easier for you all." Not a second later, two winged javelins appeared around Charlemagne before they started spinning around him. The rotation got faster and faster, to the point where it seemed like they were trying to form a tornado. The javelins then descended and soon dragged on the floor, creating grating sounds that disorientated everyone else. By the time the javelins stopped and disappeared, Charlemagne stood in the middle of a carved circle that was about ten feet in diameter.

"You see this circle I'm in? Here's the deal, I lose even if a part of my body touches the ground outside the circle. This should be no big deal with the four of you against me right?" Charlemagne said as he drew Joyeuse out before pointing it at Team CRDL. "And the only thing I'll use from my personal arsenal is this sword, without Dust."

This got a plethora of reactions from the audience. Glynda was surprised that Charlemagne would put himself in such a handicap. His friends were no less surprised, but Sora couldn't help himself but smile.

"Huh! Who do you think we are, Magnus? We'll throw you out of that circle in no time! " Cardin yelled out. Both Sky and Russel were the first ones to rush at Charlemagne. Russel was the first to reach Charlemagne and came in with a 360 spinning strike with his daggers that was easily deflected. Charlemagne bobbed around and deflected a few more swipes before Russel backed off shortly as Sky suddenly came into view, looking for a horizontal cleave with his halberd. With his reflexes, Charlemagne crouched under the blade and retaliated with an upper slash that led to his own horizontal slash that sent Sky staggering back. A few bullets were shot by Dove's sword as the man began strafing. Undeterred, Charlemagne effortlessly deflected the bullets and predicted the path Dove was running on. He deflected the next bullet towards where Dove would be at and the bullet hit its mark, disorienting Dove. Hearing a roar, Charlemagne brought his sword up to block Cardin's downward swing.

Cardin was surprised that Charlemagne had the guts to hold him at bay. A lot of fighters would much rather evade a mace swing unless they also had a heavy weapon. Here is Charlemagne however, keeping Cardin locked in position with Joyeuse. The mace-wielder was also frustrated that Charlemagne was practically mocking the whole team and specifically him. The more the match went on with Charlemagne implementing a self-restriction, the more it made Cardin feel like people were painting him as a joke. They can't even push one guy out of a small ring. He can't let him win; his lineage had a point to prove.

"What's wrong, Cardin? I see conflict in your eyes. Where was all of the bravado from before?" Charlemagne mentioned, finding it a good time to gauge Cardin.

"Still talkin' shit?! Let's see about that when your ass is out of the rin—" Cardin didn't finish due to Charlemagne breaking the lock and landing a solid broad swing on Cardin, sending the man back a bit.

Seeing their leader finally out of the way, Dove and Russel rushed towards Charlemagne, Russel performing some sort of midair sawblade attack like a flying Boarbatusk. Daggers met blade and Charlemagne blocked predictable swings while getting in a few strikes of his own. He ended the exchange with a punishing side-kick to blow some wind out of Russel as Dove came into close-range. Like his teammate, he wasn't finding any success with fighting Charlemagne. Missed attacks were punished by quick slashes that whittled Dove's Aura. Russel and Sky arrive and attempt to do whatever they can to at least get a hit on Charlemagne, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Charlemagne analyzes his surroundings and the fighters in order to find a way to close this out.

"Cardin is always a bit of distance away while his teammates are keeping Charlie busy. He only engages when he thinks he has an opening," Yang observes.

"Fighting with your friends is one thing, but he's not really providing anything for them right now," Sora frowned.

Coco gave her two cents, "He's an opportunistic fighter. Like Yang said, he lets his teammates do most of the dirty work before coming in for a cheap shot. I'm sure Charlie is aware of that by now." The statement was proved correct when Cardin charged at Charlemagne, whose back was to the large man. He initiated a wide horizontal swing that Charlemagne noticed at the last second and made an evasive jump over, mace being a mere inch under Charlemagne. The mace eventually found a target: Dove's stomach. Dove was launched out of the arena, his aura being in the bottom 40%. On the display, Dove's bar was grayed out due to being ringed out.

"And apparently he doesn't care if he gets his teammates caught in his attacks either."

Charlemagne exploits Cardin's exposed state with a kick that sends the larger man staggering back. Russel and Sky return to pick up for Dove after he got smacked out. With one less man, Charlemagne has narrowed down to one idea he can use. It was convenient that he was directly between Cardin and his grouped up teammates. Charlemagne went with the plan.

"Hey Cardin! That's a nice red crystal on your mace, haven't seen you use it yet so mind letting me see what it does?"

Cardin was oblivious about his true intentions, but now that his team can't even get the Magnus out of that damn circle, he had to use that Fire crystal now.

"That's right asshole! Now it's time to erase that circle!" Cardin bellowed as he charged towards his opponent. Charlemagne had a slight smirk while keeping Sky and Russel at bay. With the second step of the plan in the making, Charlemagne baited out an overhead swing from Sky's halberd. Being above the halberd, Charlemagne stomped on the halberd and rooted the blade on the ground and effectively disarmed Sky. By this time Cardin was just behind Charlemagne, ready to decimate the area with an explosion. With such maneuverability, Charlemagne grabbed the rooted halberd and twisted around, striking Cardin's wrists as the big man lost hold of the mace. He grabbed the mace with his free hand and gave Cardin a diagonal slash with Sky's halberd to push him back. And with one fluid motion, he spun and whacked Russel with Cardin's mace while throwing the blunt end of Sky's halberd back to the owner. This resulted in an explosion that launched Russel out of the arena and Sky's aura to get into the red zone after being knocked in the head by his own weapon.

The moment the mace left Cardin's hand to the moment right after Charlemagne eliminated two guys was only four seconds. The mace was then tossed back in front of the owner's feet.

Everyone in the room had various reactions; some went wide-eyed, some winced or exclaimed in surprise, some were like Sora and looked impressed about his skills. He let out a whistle and thought, "Yeah, that's something I would do. Use their own weapons against them."

Cardin stood there in utter shock trying to process what just happened. In the span of under 40 seconds, all three of his teammates were eliminated and their opponent still stood in one place since the beginning, unscathed. And quite frankly he looked a bit bored.

The knight pointed his sword towards Cardin as he went to pick up his mace. "A leader is supposed to fight with his comrades. If a leader doesn't move, how do you expect his teammates to follow? How do you expect a Huntsman to gain respect after indulging themselves in the strife of fellow peers? Humans, Faunus; we all feel the same emotions and the same pains. Do you have something to prove or do you think you're already hot stuff and can just toy with others without penalty?"

"Yeah… yeah I got something to prove alright. There's some pride that I need to snatch back for my family. And what's a better way to honor a great general than to squander the son of a man who embraces things that belong to the zoo!" Cardin charged once again at Charlemagne. A great deal of the Faunus population in the room glared daggers at Cardin, some even openly booed the man as he resumed his assault in blind rage.

Cardin's mace was something that most would like to minimize contact with so it came with a level of shock that not only was Charlemagne able to clash easily with his sword when he didn't opt to evade but was able to even overpower the mace a few times. Charlemagne had to give Cardin some credit for his endurance though; it gave him more time to speak to Cardin.

"So you and your family are descendants of General Lagune…" Charlemagne answered with his hunch while continuing to block and evade Cardin's mace swings. It wasn't until they locked weapons that Charlemagne continued talking, "and you wish to continue a legacy fueled by outdated thinking in an era of progressive equality?

"What makes you think they can be equal to us? They're too different and too incompatible to work with us. Look at the animals of the White Fang! They want to assert dominance over us humans! I'll be better than Lagune...after I graduate I will climb the ranks of Vale's hierarchy and flush out the Fang!"

For one Blake Belladonna, it took all of her willpower to not jump down to the arena and maul Cardin. Glynda was also contemplating on ending the match early, but it seemed like Charlemagne got this covered.

"Your superiority complex... is the reason why you'll fail like Lagune!" Charlemagne broke the lock with a shove that got Cardin a bit off-balance. "Those who strive to become Huntsmen should protect the integrity of life from the Grimm, without this petty notion of difference. True honor is found by spreading compassion, not hatred!"

The exchange went from Charlemagne toying with Cardin to the knight amping up his attacks and becoming a lot more of an offensive threat. Cardin couldn't keep up with the relentless assault so a good amount of sword strikes still made their mark. Cardin managed to block a straight thrust, but was pushed back by the force and felt the power rattle his arms. That sword was deceivingly tough and powerful.

"Look around you, Cardin. Humans and Faunus are fighting together for the betterment of Remnant. We cannot fight this battle without each other. Save all of the conflict for the Grimm, the true enemies! The culture of dominance and discrimination you follow will only bring negativity, and that just brings more Grimm. You just need to show compassion. It is what allows you to really develop camaraderie with your fellow Huntsmen-in-training. As such, that's when you gain true loyalty and respect; and that's when your comrades will finally see how truly awesome you are!" Charlemagne's voice echoed through the arena. Save for the "awesome" part, almost everyone could've sworn this sort of speech was delivered by some ruler or king.

The only response Cardin gave was an aggravated yell and slammed his mace on the floor. With a Fire crystal activated, a shockwave of flame was surging towards Charlemagne. In order to prevent the circle from being destroyed, he needed to stop it. All Charlemagne did was that he got his sword ready and released a wide horizontal arc angled towards the ground. With pure force, the surge was blown back and some went back to Cardin, who braced himself for the returned force.

After bracing himself for another second, Cardin didn't waste any time going for a blind charge though the smoke. Cardin emerged from the smoke to see Charlemagne just standing there with no guard up and a passive look on his face. Seeing this as his prime opportunity to finally land a blow, Cardin went for an overhead swing that would've pulverized Charlemagne's skull. Then there was a loud ring of an electronic buzzer.

"What?!" Cardin looked around. His mace was a few inches in front of Charlemagne's face. He looked around until he noticed what was on the electronic display. A full green Aura bar for Charlemagne, three grayed out Aura bars for his teammates, and a red Aura bar for him.

"Three members of Team CRDL were eliminated by ring-out and Cardin Winchester was eliminated by low Aura. Therefore, the victor of this match is Charlemagne Magnus." Glynda announced to the entire class. What followed was cheers from all around.

"He really beat all of them so much without a scratch!"

"It was so worth coming here!"

"AHHH CHARLEMAGNE, YOU'RE SO COOL!"

Charlemagne himself just sighed before staring at a tense Cardin. Their staredown was brief before Cardin scoffed and turned away from him. He wondered how much of his words reached the big man, but it was probably going to take a bit more than this judging from Cardin's final response. Somebody cheered his name extra loud in which he turned towards the voice. He couldn't help but crack a smile as he looked towards his friends.

"Huh, so this is what a member of Team King is capable of." Ren said.

"I must say, it'll be a whole lot of fun sparring with him in the future. Hey Sora, I hope he isn't the only person on the team who can do things like these." Pyrrha teased Sora a little. Sora only gave a small laugh.

"Well, push me enough and we'll see about that." He gave the red haired girl a challenging smile, which she returned as well.

Once the cheering died down, Glynda gave her verdict on the battle. "Charlemagne, although you put yourself in a dangerous position with all the handicaps you placed on yourself, you still had an excellent display of prowess, awareness, and adaptability. This is such a performance we will expect from you in the future as part of an elite team. As for you Team CRDL, I hope this provides a good lesson about the essential importance of teamwork. No strategy was set and friendly fire was even caused. What I suggest for your team to do is study extra hard on team tactics as well as re-evaluate… your motivations for becoming Huntsmen. You five are now dismissed. We will resume other fights shortly." Charlemagne and Team CRDL walked off the arena as Glynda used her Semblance to patch up the arena.

Once Charlemagne got back to his friends, nothing but praise was given to him. Yang ruffled his hair, which Ruby pulled her off when she noticed Yang starting to do it a bit too hard. Coco walked up to him to introduce herself and team CFVY, praising his style of combat as well as... his style of clothing? Jaune was the only one not grouped up near Charlemagne, seemingly in deep thought. A certain spiky-haired teen gave him a curious glance before returning to Charlemagne.

* * *

Much of the stragglers left after Charlemagne's match, which Glynda didn't comment about because she knew they weren't even supposed to be there. Random match-ups were what the remainder of Combat class was about. Other than Blake displaying her cunning use of shadows to quickly dispatch her opponent and finally seeing how a person would take a nastly blow from Nora's hammer, nothing exciting happened.

So after class ended, Sora went off on his own to do a little bit of exploring. Something about Beacon's towers and the sunset this place had reminded him so much about Twilight Town. After a bit of wandering around he stumbled upon a view from one of Beacon's towers. He couldn't go to the biggest tower because that was where Ozpin's office was at, but the tower he was on was more than enough because of the view it provided. He gazed at the sunset, all of this reminding him of the Tram Station tower. The memories of Roxas and Xion and their hangouts on top of that tower with Axel fresh in his mind. What also came into his mind was when he and Kairi both ate ice cream above the Twilight Town gang after he restored her heart.

This made Sora have a sudden feeling of melancholy. He half-expected to look on both sides to see Kairi on his left and Riku on his right, eating sea-salt ice cream and watching the sunset. Alas this was not the case; no one he knew before Remnant was here nor was there a sign of sea-salt ice cream seen yet by him.

"Shame. This was something I wanted all three of us to experience together." He muttered to himself. It really did hurt that he was given a second chance to be a hero yet at the cost of potentially never seeing his old friends ever again. For all he knows, they might think he's gone but Riku and especially Kairi might try everything in their powers in the hopes to locate him. What was he going to do after all of this? After achieving Remnant's salvation? Would he also attempt to find a way to return to his old friends? It was then that Sora thought of the friends he's already made here: Team RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY, and Charlemagne.

A smile was brought to his face. He was now planning on taking them to this spot one of these days. The view might not be the view from Twilight Town, but it was enough. Sora was content with the new friends he has made already, such in his nature to do so. There was this glimmer of hope he still held that made him believe he can reunite with the ones he left behind.

"Everyone, wait for me. After this world is saved, I will come back to you all somehow and maybe… just maybe you can meet my new friends here." Sora proclaimed. His thoughts soon wandered to wondering if this was now the right time to see if sea-salt ice cream was a thing in this world. If not, then he would either find some sort of substitute or even go as far as learning how to create it. While looking downwards, he noticed Jaune on one of the dormitory balconies before seeing Pyrrha shortly entering afterwards. Sora would've considered letting them be and going back to his own thing but the way Jaune acted after Charlemagne's fight intrigued him. It looked like Pyrrha had something on her mind too regarding that.

After a few seconds of thought. Sora activated his Flowmotion and began descending towards the balcony. It didn't take him long to arrive as he hid behind a protruding window frame on the rooftop, overlooking the two teammates. He got there in time to hear the meat of the conversation.

"Jaune, I couldn't help but notice how you acted after Charlie's match. Is something the matter?" Pyrrha asked.

The blond had a surprised look before slightly looking away in a sheepish manner, "Oh… haha. So you noticed."

"It wasn't hard to notice." Sora thought with an exasperated expression.

"Charlie's match just made me think about what we talked about during lunch. How I questioned my role as a leader when Cardin was able to push me around so easily. There was a part of me that was thinking I didn't have the physical capabilities of being a leader." Jaune confessed.

Pyrrha walked a bit closer to Jaune. "Jaune… I think all of the first-year leaders are new at this. You can be very strong, but that's nothing if you get overwhelmed without knowing how to count on your teammates. That's what teammates are for, we cover your weaknesses and carry the loads that you can't carry alone."

"Th-thanks Pyrrha. Before that talk, I just thought that it was up to me alone to make myself better and that I didn't want to be the damsel in distress who cries for help…", Pyrrha was a bit astonished that this was Jaune's mindset. "... But after what was said at lunch and what we witnessed in Charlie's match, it made me appreciate being in the company of strong individuals. Despite not being a leader, Charlie really talked like a king there!"

"I was surprised about that too. He had this charisma to him that was unshakeable. It was hard not becoming captivated by his words" Pyrrha chuckled a bit.

Sora had thoughts on that too. When Charlemagne went off on Cardin in the match and in the dining hall. Not only did Charlemagne talk like he had experience being a king, but how he conveyed his words really caught his attention. Sora was aware that almost the entire crowd was drawn towards his teammate when the match turned into a 1-on-1. It felt like it was a skill of his to have natural charisma, or maybe it was something more…

"What helped me out of that isolating mindset the most was when you three offered to tutor me," Jaune continued. "Don't get me wrong, Team RWBY as well as Nora and Ren are plenty good too but you, Charlie, and Sora stand out. Especially you, the so-called "Invincible Girl!"

Pyrrha sort of shied away when Jaune mentioned that moniker. "Ah, it's nothing too major. So, does that mean you are willing to let us help you?"

Jaune raised a hand up for a handshake, "It would be my pleasure to train with you all."

For a brief moment, Pyrrha looked at Jaune. She walked up to Jaune and made the motion to grab the hand. What Jaune didn't expect was to be shoved to the ground.

"Hey!"

"Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider and lower to the ground." That was all Pyrrha said before offering a hand. Jaune was not offended and smiled as he accepted the hand, both teammates content with the decision. "Let's try that again."

Sora left his spot unnoticed while the two continued their mini-lesson, content with what he heard. While Sora and Charlemagne were good references to learn from for Jaune, Pyrrha was essentially the best due to her using a combination of sword and shield like Jaune. Sora was looking forward to helping Jaune with his combat. He felt that Jaune did have potential to be great, remembering Jaune directed some of the actions during their Initiation. As long as Jaune stuck around with their group, he should be good to go fairly quickly.

* * *

Wassup guys. This is a shorter-than-usual chapter that concludes this small Charlemagne character arc. A few commented about Sora not exactly getting the most spotlight right now for a Kingdom Hearts/RWBY story. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten who the leading protagonist is. I'm sure I've said this before but Sora is a very rounded character at this point thanks to the many games Kingdom Hearts has had already. Putting post-KH3 Sora into the RWBYverse makes him the most developed character in this entire narrative, and this includes all current or latest versions of the RWBY cast. My goal was to give more narrative depth to Charlemagne's character. I've also finally decided where to implement Charlemagne's origin story. It will be at the beginning of Volume 2 so you all don't have to wait really long for it. His story might be around one or two chapters long and then we will go back to the present day of Volume 2 RWBY canon.

If you notice, I also gave Cardin more character depth in this story. So he's no longer just a bully for the sake of being a bully. Now he has a small established background as a descendant of General Lagune whose anti-Faunus mindset has rubbed off on Cardin, making him opposed to The Oracles of the Elder's belief of universal equality. He'll show up again and hopefully I give him more to do than what he was given in Volume 1. Speaking of Volume 1, the current remaining roadmap for this version of Volume 1 is going to have that whole arc about Blake's reveal as a Faunus and ex-member of the White Fang next except I will attempt to include more relevance for Sora now that I'm done with the Charlemagne arc. I'm going to make edits so it doesn't play out 95% like the original because Sora and Charlemagne's inclusion into the RWBYverse should alter the timeline. That's one of the reasons why the Jaune arc (ha the Jaune "arc") was reworked so now he isn't blackmailed by Cardin and the stuff that happens at Forever Fall doesn't happen here. After the Blake arc I plan on making an original arc. This original arc will most likely be a lot more Sora-centric since I got bits of stuff planned to happen around that time pertaining to Sora. It will then hopefully segway smoothly into Volume 2.

The new cover image for this story is something I made on Adobe Photoshop. I would like to credit the people who drew out the Sora and Charlemagne (I'm not THAT good at drawing lol) but I did not see the artists' names from where I got the images, so whoever the artists are y'all are great and keep it up.

As always let me know if you got any recommendations or questions. I am welcome to hear what you say.

Peace,

Re-Eternal


	5. Chapter 5: Day 24 - Silence Broken

**Last chapter's title: the boss theme when you fight the Mystic in Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition. Translates to "Kingly Compassion".**

**I realized all of my chapters are named after song names/lyrics. Maybe I should start diversifying LOL. **

* * *

**Ch.5: Day 24 - Silence Broken**

The next few weeks went by without a hitch. Ever since that match, the members of Team CRDL have been less inclined to harass whoever they wanted although that doesn't mean they haven't tried a few times. It seems that Charlemagne's charisma has affected a good amount of students because more bystanders were willing to call them out or intervene whenever they tried doing something in a malevolent nature. Specifically with the Faunus, Team King is rather famous among them since Charlemagne and Sora have made more of an effort to make sure the Faunus feel safe at Beacon.

In that same time span, the general initial skill levels of the first years were set in stone. Jaune still had ways to go with his training, but it was surprising how quick Jaune learned essential combat techniques. A few weeks worth of extra training already made Jaune several times better than he was during his first match with Cardin which allowed Jaune to win more matches with a general majority of the class. Near the top of the pack, the other members of Team JNPR and Team RWBY have yet to lose a sparring match to anyone unless they were facing another member from one of the two teams. Yang has an almost perfect record, but was beaten once by Pyrrha who holds a perfect record. The moniker of the "Invincible Girl" was one no one took lightly.

However, the individuals that stood equal to or even higher than Pyrrha were the dual kings of Team King. Pyrrha might've dominated her competition, but the two boys usually did so a bit faster than the red-haired Spartan. Having already seen Charlemagne's first match, everyone wasn't expecting less from him. There were certainly questions on how good Sora was.

Let's just say all questions were immediately squandered after his first match.

While Charlemagne usually dominated with powerful yet precise attacks and elite-leveled swordplay, Sora would outright out-blitz his opponents and find really creative ways to dish out damage both when on the offensive or countering either by using the environment or using opponents' attacks against them. Even without Flowmotion, Sora was pretty hard to keep up with. Both boys haven't used much of their arsenal, making some students wonder just how many weapon-types they have. But so far, the only reason why he, Charlemagne, and Pyrrha have perfect records is because they haven't fought each other yet. Many were awaiting the fated day when either three of them are pitted against each other.

The three teams' consistently good showings of combat was surely going to make them eligible to participate in the Vytal festival. What made this a big deal was the fact that they were competing with ALL students at Beacon to be Vale's representatives, and that included the older students. Not only did it make eligibility fair for anyone, but it also allowed the younger students to gauge their skill levels compared to their seniors. Many already regarded the three teams to be at least second-year level already, Team King with just the two members likely beyond that.

It was an average Saturday day so there weren't any classes going on. Team RWBY went down to the city to check out the preparations for the Vytal festival (though they were suspicious that Weiss just wanted to scope the competition out). With Team JNPR, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren went to do some extra studying for an exam that they had. Jaune was left with nothing else to do so he went to Team King to kill time. They all figured it was a perfect time to train Jaune since they too also had nothing to do since they were all caught-up with their coursework.

"Loosen up a bit, Jaune. You're way too tense!" Jaune did what Sora told him to do, realizing that being very stiff itself was putting a bit of strain on him. Sora was currently going over a two-handed sword style with Jaune in the event he wasn't using his shield. The pair from Team King decided it was better for Sora to teach Jaune two-handed swordplay since he primarily holds his Keyblade with two-hands most of the time. As for one-handed swordplay, that would be more of Charlemagne's expertise especially considering that Croceas Mors was small enough to be deftly wielded with one hand. Since the weapon was also a family heirloom passed down from many generations, it lacked any sort of gun modifications nor did Jaune have anything on him pertaining to projectiles. The two boys decided it was best to refine his swordplay as soon as possible seeing that projectile modifications weren't going to be in place anytime soon. A few rounds from the training pistols told everyone that Jaune had an ABYSMAL aim right now.

Taking a few breaths, Jaune performed a series of practice strokes that Sora showed him. These were similar to the sort of basic attacks Sora did in his first adventure but with more refinement. He didn't want Jaune to use his roughly put-together fighting style he used when sparring with the Destiny Island kids all that time ago. However, Jaune couldn't do any super flashy moves like the rest of his team right now, resulting in Sora thinking up a modified version that reflects the few years of experience he has gone through as well as what he's seen from other sword users like Leon and Cloud. Jaune should learn the fundamentals real quick.

"Ehhh… I will give this attempt a C+. You're honestly learning the motions rather quickly, it's more about refining your swings now." Sora explained, giving his opinion on Jaune's latest runthrough of the exercise. The teen tried to think about what more he could say. "What else should I include?"

Putting some fruit for thought, Charlemagne chimed in, "I can say that it's a good habit to be more intimate with your sword instead of viewing it as a means to an end."

"'Intimate?' That sounds kinda weird there." Jaune warily said, not exactly understanding what Charlemagne meant.

"Huh… Oh yeah I got it!" Sora cheerfully said, getting what Charlemagne was implying. "Don't view the sword as just a weapon, view it as a part of your arm. Like an extension of yourself!"

"Be deliberate with every movement and fully aware of all actions taken. Plan all attacks and know their effectiveness!" Charlemagne added.

Jaune took into account both of their advice. With those in mind, he looked at Croceas Mors and gazed over the craftsmanship of the blade used as early as the Great War and beyond. Even though he isn't much of a battlefield professional, he could tell Croceas Mors was a one-in-a-kind blade; a simple-looking sword with top notch fundamental craftsmanship. His great-great grandfather made good use of it and he damn sure will too.

He readied himself in another stance and imagined the sword as another extension of his arms. A few practice swings were then swung before he began to perform various combinations of the exercise. With each swing, Jaune made the choice of where they will end up and how much force we will implement. He ended the exercise with a coup de grace: a spinning leap into a downward swing. The tip of Croceas Mors impacted the ground and small cracks webbed out.

A clap was heard as Jaune turned to Charlemagne, the Magnus heir saying, "Amazing, you just got a lot cooler there!"

Sora was also impressed at Jaune's display. "That's what I like to see! A much better improvement this time, like a solid B. Keep practicing like this and you'll sweep Cardin by the end of the semester!" He went towards a water bottle before tossing it to Jaune.

"Thanks, Sora." He took a long squeeze of water before swallowing it, relishing the fresh cold fluid. "So do you guys have other things planned for this training?" Jaune was glad that something worked out well during this session, their advice was really helpful for improving his technique. It seemed like they had more in mind though.

This made Sora remember the other thing he planned on bringing up, "Oh! I've been meaning to ask you, but did you unlock your Semblance yet?"

A downward look was the answer he got, but it was all that was needed. The boys looked with concern, Jaune was really the only member of the three teams that hasn't manifested their Semblance. Pyrrha's polarity took some time to discern due to her very crafty and minimal use of it in spars. Since practically all weapons nowadays had some metal on it, redirecting weapons away from her made her literally untouchable at times. Meanwhile, Ren finally showed his ability to mask negative emotion when he suggested avoiding the Grimm during a Forever Fall field trip to avoid damaging their jars of sap.

Jaune has already shown capable leadership with a good understanding of his teammates' abilities, but he needs to unlock his Semblance so he can become a more capable combatant.

"Mind if we do a little spar? Don't worry, it's just to see your technique." Sora asked Jaune out of the blue.

"Uhh sure man." Jaune responded, walking towards one end of the ring with Sora going to the opposite. Charlemagne set up the Aura reader and got the display to show their Aura bars.

"Hey Jaune, have the members of Team RWBY or JNPR ever told you how they awakened their Semblance?" Sora asked from the opposite end.

"Well…" Jaune wasn't sure where Sora was going with this but he responded, "Ren told me it was out of panic in a dire situation."

"Oh, ok! You ready Jaune?" A nod of confirmation from the blond was given as both of them took a stance. Charlemagne took this as both of them were ready as he held his hand up.

"Let the match begin!"

The millisecond after Charlemagne swiped his hand down, Sora shot towards Jaune in a blur. Jaune had extremely little time to react and instinctively held his shield up to brace for an attack. He didn't see Sora pause in front of him briefly. By the time Jaune realized, Sora was already behind him and struck at his exposed back with a hard enough blow to send Jaune hurdling forward. After a good fifteen feet of tumbling, Jaune regained his footing.

"_Even without his Semblance, he's fast!"_

The spiky-haired Keyblade wielder didn't skip a beat as he easily caught up with Jaune and began a vicious assault. Jaune did everything in his power to mitigate the punishment, but Sora was simply too much for him to handle. For some reason, Sora was being more aggressive in his approach than in his other matches. He was pushing Jaune more than anyone else he was assigned against. From the sidelines, Charlemagne couldn't help but wince seeing the sight of Jaune looking like a pinball in a pinball machine. The man was lucky with his abnormally large Aura reserves protecting him. But even so, Jaune's Aura was decreasing at a fairly rapid rate.

"Huff...huff…hey, hey, Sora! Can we take a time ouuUUUTTTTT!"

It was a request that went unheard and Jaune raised his shield to block a Keyblade that was thrown at him. The weapon bounced off the shield as Sora leapt and grabbed it in midair. As he started to go down, Sora decided to see the fruits of Jaune's training with the two-handed sword style. With a powerful swing, Sora completely disarmed Jaune of his shield as the shield went flying out of bounds. Another swing came in that Jaune blocked, the force making him skid a fair way back. He was dismayed slightly at the realization that he couldn't use his shield. It was practically out of the question to grab his shield and even if the shield wasn't out of bounds, he wouldn't be fast enough to grab his shield without Sora reaching him first.

"Jaune! Let's see the results of your training!" Sora exclaimed as he began running towards Jaune.

The blond wasted no time getting into a stance and waited for Sora to reach him. This was the part of the fight where Sora wasn't going super insane; probably to see Jaune's technique. Reaching to where Jaune was, Sora sidestepped to strike at Jaune's exposed side as Jaune went to clash blades. Warding off the Keyblade, Jaune went for a diagonal cut Sora weaved around with a follow up horizontal sweep that was deftly blocked. Jaune slid his sword up to free himself from the lock while maintaining a hanging guard to leave no opening for a counterattack. Not going as hard he started with, Sora used the momentum from being slightly pushed back into a swirling lower sweep to the legs albeit slow enough for Jaune to react. Jaune did a little hop over the Keyblade before going in for a falling strike, believing he got an opening on Sora who had his back turned to him while continuing his rotation. His intention was used against him though as Sora narrowly dodges Croceas Mors and lashes out at Jaune's stomach with a reverse-grip upper sweep. Managing to keep a grip on the sword, Jaune flew as he tumbled on the ground.

Coughing from that unexpected strike, Jaune stood up, "Not done yet!" He ran towards Sora with an upward diagonal cut which was parried. The exchange progressed while Jaune was surprised how long this fight with Sora lasted. Much of the matches Sora fought should've already concluded with Sora running his opponent through the ground 20 times over. He felt in this case that: 1.) He was actually improving and 2.) Sora was just prolonging the fight purposely to observe Jaune's improvement. There is another reason he thinks was making this fight last longer. It feels like… Sora is waiting for something.

Sora began ramping up his attacks, getting to the point when he started. Jaune found it hard again to keep up with everything that was being thrown at him. A sudden forward thrust by Sora was enough to throw Jaune off his guard. It was then chained with an upper slash that sent Jaune in the air once more. He wasn't left to fall just by gravity as Sora leapt into the air to meet Jaune at the apex of his airtime as Sora sent a bit of a vicious downward slam to Jaune as the blond came crashing to the ground. Jaune, in complete shock with what just happened, groaned as he found Croceas Mors slightly out of reach. He noticed Charlemagne look upwards before following where his eyes looked at. Jaune looked in panic as Sora was descending, seemingly committed to a falling strike that would put Jaune out of commission.

Time slowed down as Sora drew nearer towards Jaune. On the sidelines, Charlemagne was wondering what Sora even wanted out of this fight. He was going on extreme offensive but at the same time didn't close it out quickly. It was until he mentally went over the words the two combatants had before this spar.

"_...have the members of Team RWBY or JNPR ever told you how they awakened their Semblance?"_

"_Ren told me it was out of panic in a dire situation."_

"_Panic...dire situation… Sora, are you trying to make Jaune activate his Semblance?" _ Charlemagne mentally pieced together as he witnesses what will transpire.

Sora flared some Flowmotion energy to intimidate Jaune as he continued his descent. With all he can currently do, Jaune reflexively raised his hands in the hopes of mitigating the strike.

A sudden emergence of bright light emits from his hands.

When the light died down after its momentary flash, everyone opens their eyes and immediately looks at Jaune or more specifically his forearms. It looked like his Aura was flowing throughout, actively creating the second layer of protection. There was also bits of the flowing bright energy on the Flowmotion emanating on the Keyblade.

"Is… is this my… Semblance?"

Charlemagne ran to where the two were, "Woah! Are you ok Jaune? Did that strike hurt you at all?"

Jaune took another look at his hands. For some reason it didn't hurt as much as he expected. "Not really actually. It felt more than when my Aura usually shields me. It felt… stronger."

"Wellllll I did try to soften the blow as it was about to land, but I'll say that what you did made it do even less damage on your arms. Though, my question is about this sudden collateral damage around us!" Sora responded while gesturing towards the sudden ring of cracks they were all in the middle of.

"Oh my lord, you didn't try to kill me did you!?" Jaune exclaimed, being extremely worried.

"Not at all dude! Right when I pulled back some of the power on that attack, it felt that the Aura feeding my Semblance was amplified by your Aura. So that bigger energy was transferred to the ground."

Charlemagne decided to finally voice his realization of what Jaune's Semblance could really be, "Amplified? I'm starting to think this isn't just a defensive Semblance."

"Can my Semblance affect others?" Jaune picked up from his own analysis.

Observing the Flowmotion that was amplified by Jaune's Semblance, Sora decided to do a little test by throwing his Keyblade to the wall. What he intended was for the Keyblade to imbed itself slightly into the wall since he didn't put a great deal of force into the throw… so it was a shocker to see the Keyblade make a hole through the wall and imbed itself deeply into the next wall of the neighboring training room with a freaked out student.

After an awkward silence, Sora decided to break it, "Well, I guess we had enough training for the day. Who wants a post-training meal… hehe…"

* * *

Sora went to retrieve his Keyblade from the next room and apologized to the student who was training in that room. They spent a good chunk of time in the training room so by the time they got to the dining hall, the kitchen staff was transitioning into dinner service. While they waited for the staff to get the food ready, the boys were relaxing on a lawn discussing Jaune's Semblance and the effects it would have on other Semblances they knew.

"From what we have seen, this could clearly be more than just Jaune focusing a lot more Aura into a smaller area. It made your Flowmotion output stronger, so from what I'm guessing it can really make other Semblances pack more of a punch!" Charlemagne quipped.

"Oh! So what if you did it on Ren? Maybe you can make the surrounding area an anti-Grimm zone!" Sora thought up.

A very enlightening theory to test out. Jaune had just unlocked his Semblance so he will have to practice using it on a more regular basis. It helps that his Aura reserves are gargantuan which correlates to more time practicing. The flexibility and potential of Jaune's semblance is insane. If their theories were right, Jaune is essentially just a walking power generator of Aura who is able to overcharge his and other people's Auras. This makes him a perfect supporter/tank for both ending battles in a bang or battles of attrition. Or if it's something like with Ren's semblance for utility, it'll make missions a lot easier.

"The list of your Semblance's usefulness is so big I imagine. I wanna see you test it with everyone's Semblance to see how your Semblance improves theirs', Jaune." Sora said.

"Pyrrha and the others will be very surprised when we tell them. She thought that after she unlocked my Aura, my Semblance would come a bit easier for me since my body is more mature than when people usually awaken their Auras. Her guess was that maybe my Semblance would show up during a spar since in her words: 'You do flail and get tossed around a lot trying to do something big,'" Jaune finished with mild exasperation.

"You said Pyrrha unlocked your Aura?" Sora asked as he and Charlemagne looked in interest.

"She did during the Initiation after a tree branch whipped at my face and gave me a cut. After her little ritual or whatnot, the cut healed and I felt the Aura within me activate."

"Sooo you didn't have your Semblance AND Aura coming into this school?" Charlemagne looked a bit pale. They had to fight two big Grimm and one of the most dangerous Grimm even when it wasn't mature when Jaune just unlocked his Aura within a few hours prior.

"W-well… you all know how desperate I was enrolling into this school and maybe I skipped a few steps when getting into this Huntsmen thing… umm… of course I knew about those things before getting here! I uhh... just had to meet deadlines… ha..." Jaune sat there awkwardly while the other two just stared at him in pure silence. Jaune has defied so many consequences like injury and incarceration via forgery. They're surprised Jaune hasn't gotten himself killed at this point.

"_Ozpin's gamble is sure paying off…"_, the two both thought.

It wasn't long until Nora's voice was heard, "Hey it's Jauney with Porcupine and Mr. President!" The three guys looked around to see the rest of Team JNPR approach them.

"What?" Charlemagne was confused by the nicknames.

"Welllll Sora is 'Porcupine' because of his spiky hair and you are 'Mr. President' because you sometimes talk like some leader!"

Ren gave his input on the nicknames once he saw their faces, especially Sora's, "I have a feeling one nickname is better than the other."

"You're tell me…", Sora sat slightly dejected while slightly tugging one of his pointy hairs.

Nora zipped to Sora and started touching his hair as well, "How much hairspray do you even put on anyways? Tell me your secrets!"

"Ehh… I don't think I've ever had."

"That's a lie!"

"I room with him, he doesn't have hairspray."

"Liars! He must keep them in those funny baggy shorts of his!"

"Don't diss the shorts!"

Pyrrha decided to interject before the situation went deeper into the eighth wonder of the world that was Sora's hair, "So how was your afternoon like guys?"

Jaune, who still felt a bit sore from his beat down, decided to be playful. "You missed Sora trying to kill me."

"I beg your pardon?" Pyrrha responded with a strained smile.

"Wait wait wait nonononono that's not what I was trying to do!" Sora defended himself.

His teammate tried to talk in between suppressed laughs before managing to speak, "Talk about a very intense game of Jaune pinball."

"Not helping!" Sora tried gaining control of the conversation as Pyrrha's glance became more inquisitive.

The quiet man of JNPR decided to ask Sora himself, "Seems far different from what is usual from his training with you three. What were you going at?"

Looking for reasons to make a case, Sora spotted a trash bin with an empty can on top which hasn't fallen in yet. Looks like a perfect opportunity to test.

"Hey Pyrrha, mind using your Semblance to grab that empty can over there? Jaune, place your hand on her shoulder."

While Jaune's teammates were confused by the request, Jaune and Charlemagne knew what Sora was getting at. Pyrrha obliged and turned towards the tin can and held her hand out while Jaune stood by her side and held her shoulder. The gray Aura activated on Pyrrha's hand and encompassed the can. At the same time, Jaune concentrated in order to bring his Semblance out and sent a quick burst of his Aura Amp to Pyrrha, who felt an unexpected surge that distracted her. The magnetism not only enveloped the can, but the trash bin as well.

Enough polarity was applied to completely unroot the trash bin from the ground as it sailed towards the group… and decked Jaune at a decent velocity.

Shocked, Pyrrha went to Jaune, "I'm so sorry!"

Nora, for once, was very still as she tried to process what happened, "Uhh, what just happened?" Her companion was processing it too but he started connecting the dots.

"Sora, did you manage to make Jaune manifest his Semblance?" This got Nora widening her eyes real quick and Pyrrha's attention.

With a gleeful smirk, Sora responded, "I sure did! Jaune told me that you first used your Semblance in a life or death situation. Coming in with the thought to kill wasn't what I was going for, buuut I thought the trigger was getting him to panic. I felt the power of my Aura grow stronger once I came into contact with Jaune. How did it feel, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha put her hand where Jaune placed his hand on her shoulder. "It felt like.. my Aura received a soothing wave that also gave it a boost. The sudden surge caught me by surprise and made me momentarily lose control of my polarity. Thus, the power of my Semblance rose higher than what I prohibited it to go."

"My head… ughh my bad, I forced a lot in a quick burst." Jaune said as he got himself back on his feet.

"I say this experiment is a success!" Charlemagne quipped. "We can now confidently say that Jaune's Semblance makes him a walking Aura charger!"

"An… Aura… CHARGER?!" Nora exclaimed with the look of a gleeful mad woman. "Strap Jaune to my back and tase me! _I'll have_… UNNNLIMITED **POWEEEERRRRRR**!" She began to slowly creep up on Jaune, mumbling about the crazy power she could gain, as Jaune was very visibly frightened and called for Ren's help. Ren could only look at Jaune with pity. While that was all going on, Pyrrha approached Sora as he watched Charlemagne trying to prevent Nora from making Jaune her personal battery.

"Sora?"

The spiky haired teen brought his attention to her, "Yeah? What's up, Pyrrha?"

"I would like to thank you and Charlie for contributing to Jaune getting closer to his dreams. It really means a lot to him and our team for his quick development… this especially means a lot to me as his team partner." Pyrrha said.

Sora did his trademark grin and held his arms behind his head, "Anything for a friend!" Sora responded as they both turned and looked at Jaune as Sora continued, "I just saw a lot of me in him: stuff to prove and all of these expectations on his shoulders. With those situations, having friends to have you back sure helps!"

"Expectations are surely something I'm no stranger to…", Pyrrha sighed.

Her delivery reminded Sora of that time before Initiation when Jaune was trying to recruit Weiss and Pyrrha on the "winning team", specifically when Weiss was explaining Pyrrha's celebrity popularity. Really to him, he didn't really mind much about a person's popularity because he probably wasn't instilled with the idea of fame and authority on Destiny Islands all that much. Yes there was a mayor but with a very relaxed atmosphere, the mayor was overall pretty lax in terms of exuding authority. He can't help it but just be very casual towards people of "higher status", like when he was scolded by Donald and Goofy for not bowing to Queen Minnie.

He just wanted to make friends, that's all.

"Eh, we're all people at the end of the day. No matter how popular you are, you're just as human as everyone else." Sora told Pyrrha, who glanced at him with silent surprise. She was appreciative to find Team King, her own team, and RWBY because they treat her like just one of them. Even with Weiss she seemed to have not focused on her fame anymore. Sora is the first person to actually say this to her face. It felt really good to be told this.

She just wished more people thought like this.

With the sound of opening doors, the dining hall was now open for dinner service. Getting everyone's attention and deciding to eat together, both teams entered the dining hall.

* * *

"I don't understand why this is such a problem!" The muffled voice of Weiss was heard as both members of Team King perked up from their individual businesses. They both looked at each other with confusion and concern in their eyes.

"Holy crap, Ice Queen over there is royally pissed. And Blake too?" Charlemagne shuddered.

"Should we check up on them?" Sora really wanted to see what was the issue.

"Hmm…" That was all Charlemagne responded with as both boys continued to listen to the argument, gradually finding out what the topic was about.

"_Blake sympathizes with the White Fang? Or rather what they originally stood for." _From what Sora gathered from news and talk, the White Fang was like the Oracles of the Elder in that their original goal was to strive for equality. Some sort of leadership or methodology change might've occurred to make the group change so radically. Sora could understand what Blake was trying to get through with Weiss.

Being part of the Oracles of the Elder himself, Charlemagne wasn't so quick to tout every single White Fang member as evil, mainly seeing where Blake is coming from. He can also see where Weiss is coming from due to being a member of an affluent family in Atlas, so he heard about what Weiss was talking about with the disappearance of people associated with the Schnee name quite a bit. It's quite unfortunate that Jacques had to take his anger out on something, or rather some people.

Sora walked towards the door as he couldn't just sit and listen, "JNPR isn't back in their room yet because they are testing around with Jaune's Semblance. We should check to see if they're ok."

"If that's the case, then let's go check up on them." Charlemagne stood up from his desk as they both made their way out of the door. They both noticed the arguing suddenly stopped and as Sora was reaching to knock the door, it was abruptly opened by Blake running out. Everyone stood where they were silently for what seemed like minutes. Not wanting to waste another second, Charlemagne decided to break the silence. "Uhh hey… how are ya girls doing?"

"O-oh hey guys, we're uh just having a bit of... teammm banter! Yeah…" Ruby tried to maintain normal composure, but it was clearly failing. Her strained smile faltered when both boys didn't buy it. They glanced at Yang, seeing her lost for words too. Weiss finally spoke up after a moment of silence.

"Go ask Blake. I'm done for the day." Weiss spat out as she went into the bathroom to get ready for bed and slammed the door behind her. The remaining four people could only look at each other in dismay. With a look of determination, Sora turned to Charlemagne.

"Charlie, you can ask Ruby and Yang what happened, I'll go get Blake!" Sora didn't wait for a response before he ran out of the room in the direction of where Blake ran. He just hoped that she wasn't really trying to hide because not only was she skilled and agile, but covert like a cat. All of his journeys have taught Sora to know who is a seasoned combatant or some powerful figure. From what he sees in Blake, she has been training and fighting a lot before Beacon but not in the prodigal sense like Ruby and Pyrrha. It seems Blake has regularly fought actual combat outside school already. As such, he will have to up his efforts to find her. She already had a head start when he and Charlemagne tried to approach the door, so she might've ran a good amount already. He might need help with this actually because Beacon is a relatively big campus.

Luckily he found someone walking around with probably very good hearing. Activating Flowmotion he zipped straight at the person.

"Velveeeettt!"

"Huh? S-s-sora?!" Sora landed on the wall near her before setting himself on the ground.

"I need your help quickly!"

"It really seems so, what is it about?"

"Weiss and Blake got into a huge argument and Blake ran off. I'm trying to find her but she already had a good head start. I was hoping you can help me and try to hear her movements with those ears." Sora explained to the upper class student.

Velvet took a second to think before answering, "I would like to help, but if you are intending on using your Semblance then I'm not sure how I can keep up with you."

"You can get on my back!" Sora suggested as he pointed his thumb to his back.

"Ermmm, what?"

"I'll do the moving around while you try to hear any sign of Blake. You up for it?"

"...Sure, Sora. You, Charlie, and your friends have stood up for us Faunus, so it's only fitting that I help you in your time of need." Velvet smiled as Sora did as well. Not wasting anymore time, Velvet secured herself on Sora's back as he made sure she was prepared.

"Ready?"

"Yep! Ready when you ar—" She didn't get to finish as Sora immediately launched off with his Flowmotion activated.

Velvet really had to wrap her arms tighter so she wouldn't get flung off. Even with a passenger, Sora was still able to efficiently traverse around with his Flowmotion. Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, Sora looked around to see any sign of Blake while Velvet focused her hearing on her rabbit ears, although she would have to periodically tell Sora to stop so the wind doesn't block out the sound. Sora even checked the towers to see if Blake went up those.

"Sora, stop right here!"

Sora nodded as he made his landing on a rooftop. "Do you hear anything, Velvet?"

"I hear footsteps, running towards that area," Velvet pointed a specific direction, "that's where the fountain is. That might be where Blake stops."

"Right! Then that's where we will intercept her!" Sora had a running head start before leaping off the rooftop. The school already started to set up some things for the Vytal Festival, so there were recently built structures and decorations Sora took advantage of for more efficient travel. It didn't take long at all for Sora and Velvet to reach the front area of Beacon where they had a clear view of the fountain. As they guessed, Blake had just stopped in front of the fountain. Sora landed softly a distance behind Blake and Velvet dismounted from Sora's back. The two of them walked towards Blake, but she didn't seem to notice maybe because she was too focused with her emotions. Sora tried to get her attention.

"Blake… hm?" Sora paused as Blake reached for the top of her head, specifically where her bow was. She unwinded the ribbon that held her bow together as she unraveled the accessory on her head, revealing what has been under that bow all this time.

A pair of cat ears. This was especially a surprise for Velvet.

"Blake… you're a Faunus?" Velvet asked as this got Blake's attention. She turned and didn't expect Sora and Velvet of all people to be the ones to track her down this quickly.

"How… how did you guys know I was going to be here?"

"Velvet helped me find you by using her Faunus hearing," Sora explained to Blake, "I told her to get on my back while I used my Semblance in order to find you quicker. But more importantly Blake… why hide the fact that you're a Faunus?" Blake averted her eyes and looked down, trying to find words to say.

"Is it because you are ashamed of your heritage?" Velvet asked with a particularly sad tone.

That got Blake to respond quickly, "No! No it's not because of that! Not at all… it's just… it's just I have done so much wrong in my past… and I just want to escape it. All of the regrets I have, the pain caused from my misdeeds shouldn't have happened… I am a monster that Ozpin allowed in this school."

Blake's ramble got Sora and Velvet extremely worried. How much has Blake done and gone through to reach this point. Even with experiencing prejudice on a wide scale, not a whole lot of Faunus would cover their features just to blend in as 100% human. Sora found the insinuation of Faunus not being considered "full people" by many to be ridiculous. From what they saw, the Faunus in this school did not go out of their way to conceal their Faunus parts. So Blake must've become very scarred from something beforehand, something that must've been the reason why her argument with Weiss was so big. Blake seeing the Faunus of the White Fang as just misguided…

The White Fang. _The _White Fang. So that's why Blake was so defensive…

"You were a part of the White Fang, weren't you?" The absence of any following rebuttal from Blake confirmed Sora's question. "Well it looks like you have gotten yourself out of the White Fang and people can always redeem themselves. You're doing so by wanting to become a Huntress."

Blake answered back to refute Sora's statement, "It's not as simple as that, Sora. I was more deep in the rankings of the White Fang than you think. I am more responsible for distributing pain than any ordinary member, the things that I have allowed hurt more people than I can count… including Weiss. All I can do is just run from my problems. And I'm just afraid of that past creeping back to me, following me, wanting to take me back."

Velvet decided to comment on Blake's wording choice, "Later on with what you've just said it sounded like you're trying to avoid a certain person." Blake had a shocked look on her face, realizing she gave away a bit too much.

Sora approached the cat Faunus, "Blake…"

"I just want to be left alone right now." She motioned to leave. Sora tried to grab her hand, but Blake activated a shadow clone and imbued it with Ice Dust, trapping Sora's hand in a frozen statue of her clone. Blake made a run for it, seeming to be headed towards the lockers.

"Blake, wait!"

Getting straight to action, Velvet went into a stance before doing a downward axe kick on the frozen appendage, freeing Sora. "We should both be able to pursue her!"

"Right!" The two began chasing Blake. Noticing that the two were not giving up, Blake produced a Fire clone that exploded a second later in order to deter the other two. They didn't let that stop them as they continued the pursuit. They eventually got closer to the lockers as Blake already reached it first. Sora and Velvet reached the entrance soon after and entered the building, looking for any sign of her. They heard a creak and went to the source only to find a half open locker.

"She must've grabbed her weapons and equipment." Velvet guessed as she closed the locker for Blake.

"We're still following her." Sora ran outside to the other door as Velvet followed.

"Are you sure about this, Sora? She might retaliate!"

Finally getting visual on Blake, she seemed to be headed to the Emerald Forest in order to lose them.

"This isn't the first time I've fought a friend in order to bring them back! I always have a Keychain on me, don't worry!" Sora reassured Velvet as he showed her the Kingdom Key keychain in his hand.

"Well I don't have any equipment on me, but I'll help you locate her in the forest!" Velvet said.

"I appreciate it, Velvet!"

Blake managed to get into the Emerald Forest, Sora and Velvet following not long after. This would be an area that Blake thrives best in; a dark forest perfect for a stealth combatant. He has no doubt in his mind Blake had night vision as a Faunus as it was rather challenging to keep an eye on Blake for how dark it was. Velvet was faring better with her enhanced hearing, but it also seemed like she had night vision as well. Blake turned her weapon into gun form as she shot rounds above her, branches began to descend. Sora summoned Kingdom Key and whacked the branches away from him and Velvet. They all ran into a clearing, Sora finally being able to see clearly. He also decided that he had enough of this goose chase so he took off in a burst of speed at Blake. Her sixth sense made her turn back and draw out her weapon. Kingdom Key and Gambol Shroud clashed.

"Blake! We really need to talk!" Sora shouted.

"Go away!" They broke off the lock as Blake finally stopped running. Sora and Blake faced each other in a stare off, seeing who would make the first move. Velvet could only watch from the sidelines, concern all over her face.

"Why...why are you so persistent?! Don't you see how far I am willing to run?! Just let me go! How can a monster like me be redeemed?! Just leave me..." Blake began tearing up. She held onto her battle stance as tears started flowing down.

Sora held his position firmly, looking at Blake with empathy. He could think of one person who was plagued with remorse about actions in the past…

* * *

**-Sora's Memories-**

"_Close your eyes." Kairi says._

_Sora complied, taking a glance at "Ansem" before slowly closing his eyes. In the dark void, he didn't know what to expect, but all of that answered itself when he saw Riku. Riku was there, it really was him. Needless to say, Sora broke down once he finally opened his eyes. In the form of Ansem and yet in the voice of Riku, he told Sora about his condition._

_"I told you: I didn't wanna be found. Not like this, I couldn't. I fought with Ansem. With... Xehanort's Heartless-when it invaded my heart, and I won. But to use the power of darkness, I had to become Ansem myself. In the past, I was overcome by the dark and betrayed you. Look what's become of me. I wasn't sure I wanted to see you...but Kairi insisted."_

* * *

**-Back to the present-**

Blake, to some degree, reminded Sora of Riku. They have both fallen into the dark path and have luckily freed themselves even though they both have regrets and the guilt of hurting others. However, Riku was able to turn his situation around fully not only by accepting the darkness but eventually overcoming it. He became a master over the power that he most feared. Blake needs to overcome her past and live in the present, to begin shaping her future that is not defined by the things she has done in the White Fang.

Sora took a few steps forward, "I'm not going to leave you in the darkness. I know this from the heart: it is never impossible to redeem yourself even after all that you've done."

A moment of silence reigned as Blake registered Sora's response. A chilling wind blew through the clearing, leaves sailing through the wind while the grass danced with the current. After a bit, the wind died down, leaving everything at peace. Only the sounds of Blake's heavy breathing were heard.

"You don't understand… there's nothing you understand about this!" Blake transformed Gambol Shroud into its gun form and began strafing at Sora. Velvet ran to help Sora, but Sora noticed and spoke up.

"I got this Velvet! We'll be done quick!" Sora told Velvet as he evaded and blocked each bullet. Sora decided to press closer to Blake, avoiding each bullet along the way. When the clip was about to reach its limit, Blake knew Sora could close the gap between them quickly so she opted for the head-on charge. She transformed her weapon into katana form and grabbed her sheathe, getting ready to fight dual wielded. Both combatants dashed at each other and their blades clashed.

Blake screamed in frustration as she jumped back and phased to the side to strike Sora but he gave her no quarter. She continued this a handful of times and Sora met her every time with no openings to give.

"It's not too late for you, you can still find redemption!" Sora tried pleading with Blake.

"Don't try it! I've done so much damage!"

Blake backflipped to gain some space but Sora closed the gap pretty quickly. She created a fire clone to replace her and Sora got caught in the explosion. Thinking she got the perfect opening, she went for a strike from behind. That didn't seem to do anything as Sora came from the smoke and met her blade. A brief bout of swordplay and Sora got the better of her as he scored a pommel strike to her side and a clean swipe across her abdomen. She was launched back and tumbled before getting on her feet.

"Rahhhhh!" Blake charged at Sora. During the exchange, Blake decided to speak up. "I've sabotaged Dust shipments, raided cargo, allowed people to suffer for the benefit of the Fang, and I've even made way for our big targets to be held hostage! Even if that resorted in someone's blood being spilt! How can I look Weiss in the face now?! I believed that we could make a change until I wanted out! The fact that I tolerated those acts for even a second is irredeemable!"

Sora swept at Blake's legs and threw her off-balance. She clone-phased to stop her fall and went up. She descended to meet Sora's blade before phasing again behind Sora to get a shot on his back. Sora saw through it and quickly blocked the bullet before throwing his Keyblade at her, striking her in the head. Kingdom Key then returned to Sora's hand.

"But you did so out of fear, did you? You seemed to be referring to someone back at the fountain, who is it?" Sora questioned Blake, who bit her lip. "If you said the Faunus of the White Fang are misguided, maybe that person can also be convinced otherwise!

"It's not that simple with Adam!" The cat is out of the bag, there's the name behind the individual. "...When the Fang was peaceful, Adam and I strove for peace between Faunus and Humans. I saw him as a brother to depend on. But overtime when leadership transferred to a new leader, the methods became more radical. I stuck with the Fang even against my parents' wishes. Adam… he became absorbed with the ideology of this new Fang, eventually embodying the worst of the Fang. He doesn't like defectors, and I am a defector that just so happened to be the person closest to him. Don't you see now? I'm never safe, he will always pursue me! I was afraid to leave the Fang because I knew Adam would do this. Now, his shadow is always on the back of my head..."

Silence filled the clearing again as a lone leaf fell from a tree. It traveled to where Velvet was as it began its descent in front of her. The moment it touched the ground at her feet, Blake switched her weapon into its sickle form as Blake opted for a mix of mid-ranged and close-range. Sora mainly stood at the same position, letting Blake move around all she liked.

Her combination of phasing with clones, using her sickle and ribbon like a whip, and elusive close-ranged style really reminded Sora of fighting Young Xehanort. There were a lot of mix-ups to consider which made that style of fighting threatening.

Unfortunately for Blake, Young Xehanort was leagues ahead of her in skill and combat prowess. He wanted to wrap this up quickly. Blake continued an onslaught of sheathe and sickle attacks. She was in the air and threw out her sickle and that's when Sora capitalized on the moment. He spun his Keyblade and the sickle bounced up and Sora followed it up by jumping and doing a spinning hook kick to send the sickle back at Blake, who was completely caught off guard. He then charged his Flowmotion while Blake was distracted by her sickle coming back and he slid under her with insane speed. This was possible without Flowmotion but Sora didn't want to showcase that level of speed without Flowmotion yet. Sora executed a counterattack with a series of spinning slashes that ended with a flipping slash. Blake got hit by all of that and that flipping slash got her Aura flashing as she landed on the ground. She struggled to get up as she noticed she dropped her weapons. Her attempt to get up was interrupted when the end of Kingdom Key hovered right in front of her face. She looked up to see Sora, seeming that he hadn't even broken a sweat.

It was silent for a few moments before Sora set Kingdom Key to his side. He sighed before giving Blake a story, "I have a friend named Riku. He's a friend that has been with me for so long, and a great competitive rival too. There was a time when another friend's wellbeing was in danger so he took it upon himself to gain as much power in order to save her. Not only did he walk alone, but he gave into darkness to the point where he was manipulated and he betrayed those he loved, including me. I fought with him to knock some sense into him. He snapped out of it, realizing all that he had done and he worked to overcome his past. He was guilty and resorted to isolating himself time to time. A few friends and I had to drag him back. No matter how big the problems are, you can't do everything alone."

"So what happened to Riku?" Blake asked.

Sora gave a pained look and he can't tell Blake how he actually got separated from everyone. "Our island got overrun by Grimm. All I can hope is for Riku's and everyone else's safety. But… I pretty much got separated from everybody." They both fell silent as Blake absorbed everything.

"Now what? You want me to stay and wait until Adam potentially arrives on the doorstep?" Blake sat with her knees to her chest, ruing that day. "I'm still not ready to face Weiss yet…"

"You can stay in one of our rooms while you prepare yourself." They both looked towards Velvet walking towards them as Sora and Blake contemplated it.

"Are you two sure about this? I don't want to inconvenience your teams at all."

"No, not at all! I'm sure Coco and everyone else will understand—" Velvet paused before she just remembered something, "...actually Coco said she wanted to test something with a weapon I was making, which is still a secret. So..." Velvet glanced at Sora, he thought about it for a bit before he smiled.

"I'm sure Charlie will be fine with this situation! We're all here for you, and I'm sure you and Weiss will come to an understanding soon." Sora reached his hand out for Blake.

Blake looked at his hand, thinking how did she still deserve this. She kept trying to run from Sora and despite all of that he went this far just to convince her to stay. Even after Blake fought him in the hopes of stopping him, he persisted. There was just something with the two members of Team King, like they've already had a lifetime of experience. The way they fought, the way they carried themselves at times, and the way they managed to lift others.

A single tear went down Blake's cheek as she silently accepted Sora's hand, smiling slightly. The camera pans to the full shattered moon.

* * *

With the moon still in the center point, the sky transitions to red as the camera pans down to view a hellish landscape.

The Land of Darkness. A barren wasteland with no signs of life to be seen for miles. All that moves in this land are the vast quantities of Grimm that roam about. Pools of dark substance dot the landscape as new Grimm periodically rise for these tar-like pools, ready for their collective purpose to get rid of humanity. A lone castle comes into view. Inside of the castle there is a conference hall with dark crystals lining the wall of windows. A dark crystal table lies in the center of the room with chairs on each side and one dark crystal chair at the far end. Right now only two chairs are occupied, one on one side and the one at the end.

"Cinder, perhaps you can enlighten me on the situation in Vale," the individual at the head of the table said.

Salem, the mother of Grimm and Humanity's bane.

"Yes, my Queen," Cinder replied as she prepared to inform Salem, "Roman Torchwick has been procuring Dust as usual from my request as per your orders. There was one incident however that involved a Huntress and two kids."

Salem held her hand up and Cinder took that as her cue to stop talking. The queen rose from her chair and walked towards one of the windows. She stared out before speaking, "And what were those two kids like?"

"One of them was a girl with a red cape and scythe, while the other kid was a boy with a key-like weapon." Cinder answered. A brief moment of silence filled the air as it seems Salem was thinking of something.

"I might know what boy you are talking about, Cinder." Salem said as she returned to her seat. Cinder raised her eyebrow. "I sent a Seer Grimm to observe Beacon's most recent Initiation for new coming Huntsmen-in-training. From there I witnessed two stand-alone stars: a boy with a key-like weapon and another boy clad in white and blue armor who I am certain is the heir to the Magnus family in Atlas Watts has told me about. With the help of friends including the girl with the scythe, they dispatched a grown Deathstalker and Nevermore easily. I then decided to send a young Mishupeshu just to see their worth."

Cinder was slightly surprised that Salem sent a highly dangerous Grimm that's only native to Anima to test a bunch of kids. Salem continued where she left off.

"They managed to slay it with not much more difficulty. Those two boys and one girl commandeered a valiant fight, and they will prove to be a wedge in our plans. This especially applies to the boy with the key."

"What's so special about that boy, My Queen?"

Salem looked at Cinder, "If all of this is true, then it lines up with what our new ally has mentioned. Speaking of which, he's here."

"_New ally?"_ Cinder thought to herself as the large doors opened.

There stood a man in a black coat.

* * *

**Yo, how are y'all doing!**

**Shoutouts to ptl for guessing last chapter's name correctly! You're the only person to actually try guessing in reviews lmao. (*EDIT*) And if you guys haven't check out hbomberguy's two and a half video on RWBY, have a look at it. His analysis on the entire series and its flaws is phenomenal with fair criticism all around. Some of you guys have suggested these sort of rewrite videos too. I am open for those thing so we can patch as much issues as possible.**

**So there's that whole pandemic thing going on around the world. That thing and summer school has halted my progress on writing this story due to being so preoccupied with other things in life. It just so happened that what I thought would take me 3 weeks to a month to write a chapter turned into 5 months. I would say there were two separate weeks where I binged each half of the chapter; the first being 3 months ago and the second being the past week. For that I say sorry about the huge delay lol. I spent some moments when I wasn't working on this story thinking about future ideas for the plot. There are solid ideas up to the end of Volume 3 and everything after that needs solidifying. Soaking the info of Volume 7 also clarified some ideas in mind.**

**I decided to make this a rather beefy chapter to kinda make the plot start rolling. I haven't introduced Sun to this plot yet and I will very soon. Team RWBY went to Vale to scout out the competition and all that during Jaune's training scene. Jaune has his Semblance now very early on, so it's more than in the main RWBY canon where he only brought it out to block Cardin's punch. In this lore, I made it so Jaune doesn't have a whole lot of precise control over his output so he will have to train with his Semblance.**

**So HOPEFULLY the next chapter will not take almost half a year to come out. The amount of ideas that I have thought out should help me quicken that process. With that being said, every one of you guys stay safe, wash your hands, and we will get through this together! I will see you in the next chapter!**

**\- Re-Eternal**


	6. Chapter 6: The Past Never Forgets

Last chapter's title: The title of the Day 24 in 358/2 Days.

**EDIT: I haven't played Melody of Memory yet so I don't know what goes on in the game. Refrain from spoilers for others who might've not played, especially me lol**

* * *

**Ch.6 - The Past Never Forgets**

**During Sora and Velvet's pursuit of Blake…**

Shortly after Sora rushed out of the room, there was a bit of silence between Charlemagne and the two sisters of Team RWBY. The sounds of a shower being turned on was heard letting those in the dorm know Weiss was getting ready for bed and also probably not to hear the conversation. Ruby sat on her bed, Yang next to her, and Charlemagne decided to borrow one of the chairs and sat across from them. It wasn't best to hold off the explanation for much longer so Yang decided to speak up first.

"So... where do you want us to start?" Yang finally spoke up.

"Ahh... I guess you can start at when this became a problem."

From how quiet Ruby was and how it looked like she had a lot on her mind, it didn't look like she was going to talk anytime soon. It prompted Yang to resume.

"When we were in the city earlier, we oversaw a crime scene where a dust shop got broken into. The cops said the White Fang was up to this and stole only the dust. Weiss spoke up saying how they are no-good scum and Blake took offense to that, saying that they are just misguided. Their argument continued even when we came back, Weiss talking about her family's history with the Fang and Blake accidentally revealing her own past membership in the Fang as well as being a Faunus herself..."

It was quiet after Yang finished her explanation while the sounds of the shower were still present. The sisters were looking nervously at Charlemagne as he was contemplating on his words.

"Hmmmm… the bow on her head."

"What?" Yang said, confused.

"I would see her bow twitch sometimes, ya know. You girls really haven't noticed? Under that bow might be… you know..." Charlemagne had both of his hands circle above his head. It took a bit for the truth to settle in for the girls. "And we can point to her high sympathy for Faunus and the White Fang and turn it into actual empathy. Man, it really does make sense."

Yang had a long drawn sigh, "I can't be on Weiss' side completely though, we now know Blake is a Faunus and we all know the discrimination they face."

"That much is given sadly," Charlemagne responded crossing his arms, "I won't dismiss Blake's hardships yet Weiss is also a victim of her circumstances. Having seen her dad for myself and learning about what lengths he goes to keep his business and reputation afloat, I wouldn't call him an honorable man at all. It looks like his only real concern for the family is the family name itself. It's really something that grinds my gears." Charlemagne clenched his fists.

"I could've stepped up and done something…" Yang and Charlemagne turned their faces to look at Ruby, who finally said something after being silent.

"Ruby…" Yang turned her focus onto her sister.

"All I did was stand to the side while they both argued. There were many times where I could've stepped forward and said something... but all I did was stay quiet. I-I'm not being a good leader." Ruby lowered her head even, looking like she was on the verge of tears. Even with Weiss putting more faith into Ruby's capacity for leadership, the events that transpired made Ruby's doubt of upholding that mantle even stronger.

"Rubes, don't say that! It hasn't even been a month since school started. You can't just expect yourself to know what to do exactly in that amount of time!" Yang responded, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"I just wish to be like the heroes in those stories, doing the right things to save the day for everyone," Ruby rubbed some tears away from her eyes as she continued talking, "but… but it's so difficult in this situation. I want to be like you Charlie when you act like a leader and I want your confidence, Yang. It feels th-that I'm not doing enough as a leader…"

It was hard for Charlemagne and especially Yang to see Ruby reduced to a state of self-doubt. It's not necessarily Ruby's fault at all for being an inexperienced leader, so trying to defuse deeply rooted personal issues between Weiss and Blake's experiences was going to be rocky regardless.

"Even with all my confidence it still didn't help me solve this anymore than you. This is just a hard topic, Ruby. And it doesn't help that this feels a lot more personal." Ruby tried for a rebuttal but was cut short by Yang continuing her talk. "Sora told you that these leadership things don't come automatically, right? You're just a leader for a few weeks and still learning, so don't beat yourself up too much sis!"

Ruby thought about her sister's words, still contemplating on what was said and the events of today. She still felt doubts though she was reminded about what Sora told her after Weiss' fight with the Boarbatusk. A hand was placed on her other shoulder as she turned to see it was Charlemagne who stood from his chair to give a comforting hand.

"Hey, don't be too down on yourself. Everyone learns at a different pace and everyone is a different sort of leader for each other. Right now, I think your silence in this matter is made up for by your amazing sense of battle strategy! Don't forget about that!"

"Well I guess you two have a point…" Ruby began relaxing as Yang and Charlemagne's words had their intended effects on her.

"And Ruby…" Charlemagne got her attention, "I appreciate you want the level of leadership that you think I have. Feels good being some sort of role model to someone else, but I will encourage you to go even further. Be a better leader than me!" He smiled as he pointed a thumb towards himself.

"We'll all be here you ya, Rubes!" Yang gave Ruby a tight hug.

"Hnnghh! Nyehh! Yaaang, I can't breaaathe…" Yang had a hold on her for another second before releasing her hold. Ruby took a few deep breaths. "Thank you as always guys. I'll try my best to improve upon my leadership. I won't disappoint you, Charlie!"

"That's the spirit!" Charlemagne replied.

"And we got that settled! With that out of the way, hopefully Sora is able to get her back tonight." Yang said.

Charlemagne had a hearty laugh to what Yang said, "I'll sure give him a hard time if he comes back empty-handed! Sora should have a lot to say to her to make her reconsider running."

"If she doesn't come back tonight, we'll just use our free time to look for Blake and drag Weiss along." Ruby suggested.

"I'll see if I got any free time to do that, but I will be down." Charlemagne gave a thumbs up as he headed towards the door. "That's gonna be it for me for the night. We'll let you know if we find anything about Blake to ya! Have a good night, girls!"

"Thanks for the talk, Charlie!"/"See ya in the morning!" The two sisters responded as Charlemagne went out the door. He returned back to his dorm room and closed the door. Wanting some fresh air, he went and opened the window to feel the cool night breeze. The information he got moments ago was quite taxing on the mind so he just wanted to relax.

With a sigh, he left the window to go brush his teeth in the bathroom before suddenly hearing movement behind him, where the window was. Turning around, he couldn't help but be slightly confused at the sight of Sora coming in through the window with a battered-up Blake on his back. Sora paused once he met Charlemagne's gaze.

"Uhhh… I'm back!" Sora said sheepishly with Blake holding in silent embarrassment.

"What have you two been up to? Blake looks like she fought an Alpha Grimm!"

Sora set Blake down on a chair before explaining, "It might've taken a little scuffle to convince her to not run away from Beacon."

Blake decided to elaborate, "Yeah, I sure can't run right now, and probably for the rest of the night." The fight with Sora left her unable to support herself alone as her legs felt like jello. Because of that, Sora had to carry her all the way back while Velvet went back to her dorm alone. She felt the soreness of her legs subside slowly and it would probably take until the next morning for her Aura to fully treat the bruises. That guy really went for the legs with that crazy reprisal he did.

"We're gonna bring Blake back looking like this? Sora..." Charlemagne imagined the befuddled reactions of Team RWBY.

"Wellll…"

"I am not going back into that room yet. I'll be staying in this room for a little bit, maybe a couple days." Blake said.

"Huh? And why is that?" Charlemagne had a surprised look as that wasn't the response he was expecting.

Blake casted a downward gaze as Charlemagne noticed movement on her head, finally noticing the cat ears that bent down in correspondence to Blake's reaction. The girl gave a long sigh before continuing, "I don't have the confidence to face my team yet. There are things I still need to decide and think about. No doubt are they going to look for me and if you two are going out to help them, being in this room will allow me to be undisturbed. Please..."

He looked at Blake, watching with deep thought and looked at Sora. His partner gave a nod and a smile. It seemed that Sora was already down to let Blake temporarily stay in the room to think her next moves over. Luckily for them, he wasn't opposed to it either.

"Very well then, why not! I find it admirable that you are trying to redeem yourself; a second chance that you deserve. We'll make sure to keep your stay a secret." Charlemagne winked at Blake.

His response made Blake perk up, relieved by his kindness, "Thank you so much… Charlie and Sora."

"Anything for a friend!" Sora beamed with hands behind his head. "Hey Blake, did I hurt your legs too much?"

"It's a bit bruised, but I can walk now," Blake slowly rose from the chair as she made her way to the bathroom before stopping and blushing a bit, "...any of you guys have clothes I can sleep in…"

The two boys couldn't help but also turn red as they figured that Blake didn't have access to her sleepwear and sleeping in her dirty combat outfit was going to be uncomfortable.

Sora went to his drawer before digging out some spare sleepwear for Blake to wear and tossed it to her. "Here, you can wear these in the meantime!"

"...Thanks, Sora." Blake said with a small smile before closing the bathroom door. The two boys looked at the door a bit longer before they both sighed. The sound of the shower was heard not long after.

"So Sora, did you _really _have to fight Blake?" Charlemagne asked with slight apprehension.

"Hey!" Sora replied and defended himself. "She kinda started it! When she started running away, she was in complete flight mode and I doubt if we'd let her go we would know about her whereabouts… she felt that guilty about her White Fang past. Putting herself down and painting a self image of a monster."

"Mmm… no doubt being in Weiss' vicinity ate at her mind. But once Weiss made a bit of an uncalled generalized blurb of Faunus and the White Fang during their outing, Blake had to argue back." Charlemagne shortly summarized what he had been told by Ruby and Yang.

"It all makes sense now since we know Blake is a Faunus and a former member of the Fang. Was what Weiss said really that offensive?"

Charlemagne pondered, "I feel for former members who were around for their peaceful days, this is within their valid reasoning to feel that many of their kin are simply fighting the wrong fight."

"But!" Charlemagne laid back on a chair with an exasperated sigh, "You cannot entirely excuse their uncool acts even if that stingy Jacques Schnee did make the perfect reasons to paint the Schnee Dust Company as their public enemy number one. Weiss has legitimate fear of being a target."

Sora thought back to his final battle with Master Xehanort. The old man at the end of it all had an admittedly sympathetic intention of restoring the balance of light and darkness. However, his methodology to go upon his plan to plunge the universe in darkness to weed out the evil of people's hearts in order to bring light was a huge issue.

Light and darkness always exist with one another. Though Xehanort's years of unethical trickery and experimentation were because of a distorted interpretation of how to maintain such balance which; his plan bordered being the tyrant of fate itself. In the end, Xehanort conceded because he finally understood that what he was striving to do was by no means only going to work with his plan. Xehanort was redeemed to a degree as even the spirit of Eraqus gave his long time friend a chance.

Now could redemption apply to Jacques Schnee's company and the White Fang?

"Even despite all of this," Sora vocalized his thoughts, "I feel that both sides can be redeemed. We know that both the company and the Fang were better in the past though now this isn't the case."

"Oho? And is there something ya suggesting?"

"I'm sure you feel the same. You and the Oracles of the Elder strive for harmony in order to defeat the Grimm together." Sora decided to bring up Charlemagne's affiliation.

The knight puffed his chest and pointed a thumb at himself, "Ya right on that one, chief! It's our job to find common ground so we can slay those creatures of darkness, not fighting amongst ourselves!"

"We _just_ have to solve that gap in understanding between Faunus and humans," Sora said with a slight wince.

"Nothing to worry about my friend! I got a feeling my Pops' work will pay off sooner or later! As for me, I might have another word with Weiss."

"Look at you, Charlie. Giving Ice Queen another lecture? Ya sure the King isn't just trying to go somewhere with the Queen?" Sora had a smug face to drive it in further.

Charlemagne was surprised by this sudden change in topic, "And what are you trying to insinuate, eh?! I just want to talk to her about her not so awesome takes on Faunus as a whole!"

Sora gave a hearty laugh while Charlemagne continued to defend himself. The unlock of the bathroom door caught their attention as Blake opened the door, already done with showering and drying up. The clothes were clearly big on her as she had a black t-shirt a handful of sizes too big and red shorts that required her to tie the drawstring three times in order to avoid a rather unfortunate wardrobe malfunction.

"You boys are free to use the bathroom now. I'm feeling really exhausted so I might just sleep now." Blake said.

Feeling chivalrous, Charlemagne spoke up, "Ah! You can sleep on my bed for the meantime! I can sleep on the couch for the remainder of your stay."

"The couch…?" That's when Blake finally noticed a rather vanity looking sofa that occupied the free space thanks to there being only 2 beds in the room. "Lemme guess… this was from your father."

"A spare he didn't want, hehe…"

Sora chimed in, "It did feel weird bringing that thing in with many people looking at us funny."

"Well it's not everyday an expensive couch gets shipped to Beacon." Blake said with her rolling her eyes as she made her way to Charlemagne's bed. "You sure, Charlie?"

"It wouldn't sit well with me if I didn't offer comfort to a conflicted friend!" Charlemagne said with a smile.

Blake nodded before deciding to pull open the sheets and lay down in them before closing them again. Feeling the comfort sink in, she decided to ask one more thing.

"I heard you were going to talk to Weiss again. Are you sure you can do anything about her viewpoints about the Faunus and the White Fang?"

"We'll make sure to let everyone know about what you really stand for." Sora gave Blake a kind smile.

"Leave it to us, Blake. I have words to say to Weiss already that will definitely make her think!" A thumbs up from Charlemagne was given to Blake.

"Hmm… I see…" Blake replied as began to close her eyes. A few moments later, she was out cold and her even breathing said as much. Her cat ears momentarily twitched in her sleep.

Both Sora and Charlemagne were surprised with how fast Blake knocked out. "Well, I guess she was that exhausted…" Sora quipped.

With that matter settled, they went back to their businesses quietly as to not disturb the sleeping Blake. Sora took a look at Blake, looking back at when he told Blake about Riku. He thought of one thing before turning back to his business.

"_Riku fought for his second chance and he's all the stronger for it. You can do the same, Blake."_

* * *

Torchwick needed another cigar.

Even if they were a bit more organized and competent than Junior's ragtag henchmen, the terrorist zoo animals still had some polishing up to do in terms of their services. They didn't have much time until the next Schnee Dust cargo arrived and they were a bit behind on preparations. So Torchwick was rubbing his head, looking down from an upstairs office of the warehouse trying to sooth the incoming migraine.

Neo wasn't supposed to be around during the Dust heist due to other obligations (which was Roman actually telling her to take a little break). He didn't want Neo to see this show of incompetence by these Fang grunts though she might've just had silent laughter anyways. However, a sudden call from Cinder came and she requested Neo's involvement due to a slight change in plans.

As much as he loved annoying the woman, it was also annoying in itself if any plan didn't go her way. Neo had the same idea as well as she was standing next to Roman, tapping her feet. They were waiting on Cinder to arrive.

"Sometimes, I really wish we can achieve all of this ourselves, Neo. Ya dig?" Roman said.

The mute girl took a glance at what Roman was looking at and seeing the hectic preparations for the heist made her do a mute giggle.

"Of course you'll be enjoying that sight. As for what I'm seeing, they just love being messy. I'm starting to have second thoughts on accepting this gig from Cinder." Roman lit a cigar and puffed out a smoke ring.

The office door opened as the woman they were waiting for arrived with her two personal lackeys. Emerald smelled the smoke in the room and waved her arms to get the smell away, much to the amusement of Roman. Mercury took a look at the diminutive girl at Roman's side as they've never actually met before.

"So where's the ice cream truck parked at? You lost, kid? Because it's definitely not here, that's for sure." Mercury took this chance to be annoying, but Neo only responded with a challenging smirk.

"This is Neopolitan," Roman gestured towards Neo, "your boss requested her assistance so unless you want to live: don't tempt her."

Neo was very brutal. And surely he wasn't the one to teach her how to be as such.

Cinder decided to speak up before they digressed even more, "So you brought the girl here. Good. I wouldn't be here as well if plans were not changed. This isn't my part to be involved with anyways."

Roman rolled his eyes. He didn't want her to monologue like usual to build herself up so he interjected, "You can get to the point, we're not trying to write a screenplay."

"Hmph…," Cinder clearly didn't like being interrupted but decided to cut to the chase, "my superior decided that it was best to include another individual to this heist. While I requested Neo to be brought forth, another collaborator has recently joined and very much so was keen on attending."

"So who's this other guy?" Roman asked. Mercury and Emerald were also curious because they weren't notified of any new key collaborators.

The question was answered when the sound of liquid being poured in a cup was heard. Everyone turned to see an individual on the couch pour some liquor for himself. Said individual gave a silent cheers gesture with the cup before downing it.

Said man was not there before.

And said man had his face concealed under a hood, wearing a black leather coat.

"Uhh… that him?" Roman did not like how no one seemed to notice the man entering the room and not only that but also taking one of the liquor bottles without alerting anyone. Cinder didn't like it either as she narrowed her eyes, that man was a complete enigma. Neo's usual grin turned a bit on guard, Emerald inched her hands toward her weapons, and Mercury stopped being cocky for once.

Maybe Roman was too harsh on the White Fang grunts, because the vibes of that man in black was just _dangerous_. And that's with being in the same room as Neo and Cinder.

The hooded man opted to be silent as Cinder responded for him, "Yes, this is our new collaborator. He will be joining you on your assignment on his _own _terms."

"On his own terms? I'm starting to think that there's really no need for this man to be here." Roman stood up from his chair as he approached Cinder.

"He is using this as an opportunity to further his own smaller personal agenda. As long as you don't impede on his work negatively, he will not do the same." Cinder snapped right back, having a serious tone in her voice. For the duration of time Roman knew Cinder, she was the type who thought she was the top shit other than when she references her one superior. Condescending, power-hungry, and manipulative were words that fit Cinder's base description when one interacts with her. So to see Cinder right now give this man in black a level of respect–rather forced respect–is enough to speak volumes on what this man might be capable of. After all, three highly capable individuals failed to notice him enter the room.

Cinder sighed as she continued, "The one thing that he did disclose is that he wants to draw out one certain individual. We both know who he is, after all he almost helped derailing that Dust heist."

"That kid with the giant key?" Roman instantly knew who she was talking about. "What does Red's random friend have to do with all of this?"

"He and that boy, according to him, are connected to each other from their past. No other details were given other than the fact that he simply wants to give the boy a reminder. What reminder? I have no idea, but now that I've said all I've heard from him: don't get in his way. Understood?" Cinder matched Roman's glare. The thief took a glance at the man in black, completely relaxed on the couch not saying a word since he got here. But his extreme level of comfort in this room full of predators told Roman that the man was a predator in of himself. Wanting to get this conversation over with, Roman gave the green light as he threw both hands up.

"Fine! Fine. Whatever it is he's gonna do he can do, as long as he can conduct his other business without messing up ours, I can care less what he does." Roman conceded as he drew another long breath of his cigar. Maybe the man can make this process of stealing the cargo easier and that'll better secure his chances of lining his pockets with more Lien. Though one question is why in the hell Cinder needed so many Dust Crystals. The amount stolen over the past months could've gotten him the hell out of Vale and let him live the rich life even in Atlas, but a vast majority of the shares went to whatever Cinder was trying to do. The advent of this man's existence made Cinder demand even more and was the reason why they're planning to hit this Schnee cargo in the first place.

"Then we have no more to discuss here. I'll leave you men to do the job." Cinder simply said as she turned and walked out of the office with Mercury and Emerald following behind her. Both she and Roman were glad that the conversation came to an end, Cinder not wanting to be in the hooded man's vicinity for long. An even bigger migraine started to form in Roman's head.

"Hey buddy, ya mind speaking at least one word befor—" He wasn't going to get the opportunity to hear the man's voice yet as the couch was vacant along with the liquor missing.

"Jackass, I was looking forward to drinking from that." Roman muttered before noticing how Neo was still a bit tense. "Heh, you still wish you were here now?" Neo's only response was sticking her tongue out at Roman, much to the thief's amusement.

* * *

The personal lackeys of Cinder definitely knew something was off about her. Ever since the meeting was over, there was tension around her that replaced her usual poised demeanor. Really the only thing that would get her like this is if there's something that is outside the influence of her power. If she doesn't have the power to subdue it, she gets angsty.

Emerald decided to ask about her superior's mood, "Cinder… is something the matter?"

Running a check on his metal feet, Mercury looked up in curiosity to see Cinder's response. In the dark warehouse of an undisclosed location, you can barely make out Cinder's frame since she wasn't in the lamplight that helped Mercury with his maintenance. Only her glowing amber eyes shone and those eyes narrowed. Emerald gulped, thinking that was a bad thing to ask but Cinder responded.

"I would assume that you two would know already."

Emerald guessed, "Is it the man in black?"

"You didn't tell us anything about that guy!" Mercury fastened the final bolt before securing the metal leg, done with his maintenance.

"Because nothing had to be said. His existence is a complete enigma. And the fact that the power I sense within him is something… that irritates me so." Cinder clenched her fists.

Watts, Tyrian, and Hazel maybe were made aware of the man's existence but it really was only her and Salem who were present at the meeting with the man in black. Salem wouldn't just easily accept a random individual into the inner circle unless she felt comfortable with how their viewpoints and goals align. And like Cinder, Salem wants to make sure all pieces fall within her jurisdiction.

Not only did the man in black manage to gain Salem's favor with a certain amount of leeway to further his own personal objectives, but he made Cinder do what she doesn't do to anyone else other than Salem: respecting his power.

Because for an unknown reason, he can also use magic. Salem confirmed as much for how long she's lived to distinguish magic from Semblances.

There was also one thing Salem seemed to confirm to the hooded man. A legend that predates even Salem's existence. It's a legend all but forgotten though individuals like Salem and Ozpin would know… and others like the hooded man and that boy, Sora.

"Did you two perhaps know about the legends of the Keyblade?"

* * *

"Blaaaake!? Helllooooo!" Sora yelled out loud.

Teams RWBY and JNPR were committed whenever they didn't have classes or homework to search for Blake with the help of Team King. Of course Team King actually knows where Blake is, but they had to play the part of concerned friends even though they felt bad for having to lie to them. Sora had to tell RWY the following morning that he simply lost Blake, much to the dismay of RY.

Sora decided to join JNPR's search party while Charlemagne stuck with RWY, wanting to have that talk with Weiss. Playing that act again, Sora pretended to sulk, head laying low and shoulders slumped.

"Man I really wished I acted faster. I might've caught Blake in time."

Ren went to comfort Sora with a shoulder pat, "You did your best with good intentions. That's all that matters. If we were back in our dorm room, we would've stopped by too."

"Though to find out not only is she a Faunus, but a former White Fang member as well." Pyrrha said.

"That came as a shock to me too." Sora responded, "Though that changes nothing about how we think about her. She's good to the heart, I know it." The heads of Team JNPR all nodded in agreement to Sora's words.

"It does make sense seeing how she'd primarily eat anything relating to fish!" Nora chimed in.

"And I think I heard her _hiss_ one time." Jaune shuddered.

"How about we try this to call for Blake? _Pspspspspsps_—"

"Nora, I know she's a cat Faunus but…"/"Nora…" Pyrrha and Ren respectfully replied.

"Whaaa? You'll never know." Nora said, trying to defend her methods.

Sora, being in front of the group, looked back while walking to look at Nora, "Cmon Nora, it's not like wondering how sloths sound. Blake can understand human speech fine—"

He was abruptly interrupted when he seemingly walked into something. Said something yelped and seemed to have dropped something. Sora immediately went to apologize to whoever he bumped into, though mentally noted how it felt like he bumped into a metal wall.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't paying attention!" Sora quickly apologized to an orange haired freckled girl with a pink bow and a gray pinafore dress. The girl only looked a bit surprised and it didn't even seem like she was knocked back by the collision.

"Oh! I am quite fine, dear sir! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going either!" The girl responded.

"_Heh, this girl really reminds me of Pinocchio. Innocent, cheery, and full of energy." _Sora remarked in his mind. He didn't forget that the girl dropped something. "Hey, lemme go get that for you!"

The girl seemed to have some sort of lunchbox. As he got closer, he noticed that it looked oddly very technological with some cold air even coming out like it kept whatever was in there cold. Even though the lid popped open, luckily nothing fell out much to Sora's relief and as he took a peek of what was inside…

Sora instantly froze.

The contents...the contents that were in this lunchbox were things that brought a flood of memories to him; some not even his own yet so viscerally real.

Ice cream bars that very much so resembled sea-salt ice cream bars wrapped in plastic covering.

"_This...th-this has to be a coincidence!" _Sora… was understandably _extremely _conflicted. There's no way that this world somehow remotely had sea-salt ice cream exactly like this. The many ice cream stores in Vale did not have this flavor at all nor in this form!

"Do you like what you see in there?" The voice of the girl broke him out of his deep thoughts as it seemed she was oblivious of the tension Sora went through, though the same couldn't be said for a visibly worried Team JNPR.

"Ah! Uh… umm… no I was just curious about what these ice cream bars are!" Clearly that was a lie.

"They are what the good citizens of Atlas call them, 'sea-salt ice cream bars!' I couldn't leave Atlas without having some, so I had someone ship me a box of them and those are the bars that I just picked up!" The girl confirmed Sora's guesses as he sort of just went a bit still.

Pyrrha mentally noted Sora's off behavior but went further with the ice cream topic, "Sea salt ice cream? I recently heard it became a huge fad in Atlas a couple weeks ago after it was created."

The other orange haired girl in the vicinity on the other hand made a face of slight displeasure. "Salty ice cream? Who puts salt on their ice cream?!"

"A couple weeks ago?" Sora asked, getting a bit more inquisitive while handing the box back to the girl.

"Yes!" The girl answered Sora, "I will say that the sea-salt ice cream has become my favorite snack! My father sometimes told me I have eaten too much. Hey! Since you are so interested in them, you can have some, mister!" Sora was about to protest but the girl stuck three bars right in front of his face which at this point he didn't want to refuse the offer.

"Where are you gonna put those ice cream bars though?" Jaune gave a reasonable question since no one other than the girl had a way to store ice cream in a cold container… unless you're like Sora who just slipped those bars in his _pocket_.

"...Sora," Jaune was really trying hard to form words, "are you sure that's fine to put those in there?"

Sora winked at him, "Don't worry, I have my ways." What the others didn't know was that a Keychain shaped like Olaf the Snowman was also in that pocket emitting cold aura. Sora was glad that the clothes Master Yen Sid gave was extremely good at insulating temperature .

"Yeahhh anyways, we should continue our search for Blake, guys. It was a pleasure meeting you!" Sora waved at the girl as the others did the same, but the girl tilted her head like she recognized something he said.

"Blake… Blake? Are you also the friends of Ruby as well?"

"Y-yeah! You've met Ruby and her team before?"

"I met them yesterday, it seemed like they were in a hurry. I was so happy when Ruby called me 'friend!' Do you guys want to be friends, too?"

Team JNPR were a bit lost of words on the girl's sudden question. Even Nora was struggling a bit. Though ever the guy, Sora always took the opportunity to make a potential friend.

"Yeah! My name is Sora. And with me are Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren!" Sora stuck a thumb towards the team's direction as they all politely waved at the girl.

The girl made a salute, "Salutations! My name is Penny Polendina! It is a pleasure to meet you all!"

* * *

On the other side of Vale, Team RWBY and Charlemagne walked around looking for the missing cat Faunus. Three of the people in the group were anyways, one of them clearly had to be dragged into this. Charlemagne definitely was in the know of Blake's whereabouts so he knew none of them were going to get anything out of this search except getting familiar with the city of Vale.

Though Charlemagne was going to get one extra thing, which is that one on one talk with the Schnee Heiress who didn't help this situation.

"Hey Weiss, at least call her name out once so if she hears it, she can at least maybe think about talking it over." Ruby tried involving Weiss more into the search.

"I think we should call the authorities instead. Blake has been affiliated with the White Fang, and I'm sure Ozpin knew this when accepting her into the Academy!"

Yang didn't really like that answer, "Hey Princess, I think she regrets being in the Fang and was already out when Ozpin accepted her. And if Sora couldn't catch Blake, then I don't think the cops can."

"Hmph! That White Fang could've made her a perfect covert spy. We don't even know exactly for sure about her status with the Fang!" Weiss responded.

"Weiss… she's our teammate and friend." Ruby tried reasoning with her.

"And can you be too sure of that after what she said last night?" The heiress replied.

"_Weiss…" _Yang said in a low tone. She was really starting to piss her off. Meanwhile, Charlemagne hasn't said a word but was clearly not happy with Weiss' attitude. Part of him was also wondering if they were being watched, because he felt a pair of eyes watching them for a while. He was focusing on where the potential stalker might be.

The knight stopped walking, which prompted the girls to notice and look back at the knight. Yang and Ruby thought Weiss said something to piss him off and was anticipating "King Charlemagne" to deliver judgement to the Ice Queen. They were wrong though when instead, Charlemagne looked up to the building next to them.

"You can come out now!" Charlemagne yelled towards the top of the building. The girls thought he was going mad until a figure leapt from the building. Their trajectory going towards the lamppost, the figure latched on with… a tail. Hanging upside down, said newcomer gave them a grin and dropped to the floor with grace.

Charlemagne gave a glance over at the newcomer: blond monkey Faunus who wore a collared shirt that showed his bare chest, jeans, and red combat gloves.

What was most intriguing was the necklace area. He had one gold pendant with a monkey symbol while another necklace accessory… surprised him when he saw it. It was two winged spears that looked just like the ones he could summon forming an "X" and a sword vertically in center.

"Hey," Weiss recognized the Faunus before them as did Ruby and Yang, "aren't you the—"

"Call me Sun, Sun Wukong! I remember seein' you three yesterday, though I wonder where the other girl is at?" Then Sun looked at Charlemagne, "As for you…"

Sun quickly took a knee, a bit of excitement building up.

"It's an honor to finally meet you!"

* * *

I've been thinking about making chapters a bit shorter than usual so I won't be confined to making on average 9k-10k word chapters. 6k-7k should work fine and hopefully that mitigates burnout a bit for me. My inconsistent upload times strike again but though to be fair, _Genshin took a hold of my life and so does college._

A more laid-back chapter this time, though it is to set the mood for the main event. Next chapter might be a bit like this too depending on what I'm currently planning. So Penny and Sun both get introduced a bit later. I decided to give Sun a small new nuance being that he thinks highly of Charlemagne. Next chapter I'll go more into detail but I can tell you that it will build up an ideology clash between Weiss and Charlemagne; both heirs of Atlissian families with opposite beliefs and goals.

For Penny, there isn't any new substantial nuance to be added but her having sea salt ice cream will certainly make Sora think a bit harder about the state of this world. The man in an Organization XIII coat is here, and it's only a matter of time when paths cross.

I might add a filler before we end the "Volume 1" portion of this story. I just wanna fluff the narrative such as candid character interactions when not in serious plot moments and making attempts to add more character to some of the original cast. Most likely this would be after this current arc and the close-out arc will be one that will heavily focus on Sora.

Anyways, hope to see y'all in the next one!

Peace,

Re-Eternal


End file.
